Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing
reliable, independent, third-party sources. (November 2023) ) |
Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing | |
---|---|
Part of the Suicide bombing | |
Deaths | 16 civilians (+1 bomber) |
Injured | 130 |
Perpetrators | Hamas |
A Palestinian suicide bombing at a pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem on 9 August 2001 killed 16 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman. A further 130 were wounded. The attack occurred during the Second Intifada.
Attack
At the time of the bombing, the Jerusalem branch of the Sbarro pizza restaurant chain was located at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in the region. Although not required to do so, owner Noam Amar added extra support columns on the advice of city inspectors.[1]
Chaviv Avrahami, who saw the scene of the attack after the bombing, recounted: "I heard a tremendous explosion, and I was thrown up a metre into the air. I knew immediately that it was a bomb attack, and a catastrophic one. There were people – babies – thrown through the window and covered with blood. The whole street was covered with blood and bodies: the dead and the dying."[3] Naor Shara, a soldier who witnessed the attack, said, "The worst thing I saw, which I think will haunt me all my life, is a baby that was sitting in a stroller outside a shop and was dead. After the explosion, the baby's mother came out of the store and started screaming hysterically."[3]
Casualties
The dead included 14 Israelis, one pregnant American, and one Brazilian.[citation needed] Additionally, 130 were injured.[citation needed] One victim, Chana Nachenberg, remained hospitalized in a persistent vegetative state more than 20 years after the attack until finally dying of her injuries on 31 May 2023.[4][5] She was 31-years-old at the time of the bombing. Her daughter, who was two years old at the time, was one of the few in the restaurant who was not injured.[2]
Yocheved Shoshan, 10, was killed, and her 15-year-old sister Miriam was severely injured with 60 nails lodged in her body, a hole in her right thigh, third degree burns on 40 percent of her body, and a ruptured spleen.[2]
Mordechai and Tzira Schijveschuurder, both children of Holocaust survivors, were killed along with three of their children. Two other daughters, Leah, 11, and Chaya, 8, were critically injured.
Perpetrators
Both
The suicide bomber who died in the course of carrying out the attack was later identified to be Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri
The person who constructed the explosives was
Ahlam Tamimi
Izz al-Masri was escorted to the restaurant by Ahlam Tamimi, a 20-year-old female university student and part-time journalist, who had disguised herself as a Jewish tourist for the occasion. She later commented that she was not sorry for what she had done and does not recognize Israel's existence. "Despite the fact that I'm sentenced to 16 life sentences I know that we will become free from Israeli occupation and then I will also be free from the prison," she said.[14] When she first learned from a journalist who was interviewing her in jail that she had murdered eight children, not just three as she had initially believed, she just smiled broadly and continued with the interview.[15][16]
Tamimi was released in October 2011 in exchange for the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.[17]
Aftermath
In response to the attack, Israel shut down the unofficial Palestinian "foreign office" in Jerusalem, at the Orient House.[18]
In 2001, the family of Malka Chana (Malki) Roth, a 15-year-old victim of the attack, founded
The incident inspired the Belzberg family to establish the
After the suicide bombing,
Reactions
Foreign Minister Peres said that "If the Palestinian Authority had acted with the necessary determination and carried out preventive detentions of Hamas terrorists and their operators, the murders today in Jerusalem would have been prevented."
Within the Palestinian Territories, Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing which it praised as a "retaliation of the Palestinian people" against Israel.
U.S. President George W. Bush expressed condolences and stated, "I deplore and strongly condemn the terrorist bombing in downtown Jerusalem today. My heartfelt sympathies and those of the American people are with the victims of this terrible tragedy and their families."[9] Bush demanded Arafat to "condemn this horrific terrorist attack, act now to arrest and bring to justice those responsible, and take immediate, sustained action to prevent future terrorist attacks."[28]
According to the U.N. press release, "
2011 prisoner exchange
During the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, relatives of the victims of the bombing vehemently protested the release of Ahlam Tamimi, who chose the Sbarro restaurant as a target and drove the bomber to the location.[2]
Arnold and Frimet Roth circulated a petition against Tamimi's inclusion in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange and also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu urging him to exclude her from the list.[31] Frimet Roth said in October, "We feel desperate. We beg Mr. Netanyahu to grant us a few minutes of his time and hear us out. In any sane country with a fair judicial system, even paroled murderers are not released without granting the victims' loved ones a chance to address the parole board."[32]
Chaya Schijveschuurder, whose parents and three siblings were killed in the attack, protested with a sign that read, "My parents' blood screams from the grave!" Her brother, Shvuel, vandalized the Yitzhak Rabin memorial and commented, "My opinions are all right compared to [Chaya's] and compared to how she feels about the deal. She was badly wounded in the [Sbarro] attack, she feels that releasing the terrorist is as if she were raped and then the rapist went and murdered her parents and is now being released. For her it's like being raped twice."[33]
See also
- List of Palestinian suicide attacks
- Palestinian political violence
- Malki Foundation
- Israeli casualties of war
- List of massacres in Israel
References
- ^ Hillel Fendel (31 May 2007). "Inventor of Pal-Kal Sentenced to Four Years". Arutz Sheva. Archived from the original on 20 September 2007. Retrieved 18 January 2008.
- ^ a b c d e Frimet Roth (11 August 2006). "Remembering the Sbarro bombing five years on". Ha'aretz. Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
- ^ a b c d e "'The street was covered with blood and bodies: the dead and the dying'". the Guardian. 10 August 2001. Archived from the original on 29 June 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
- ^ "Israeli Sbarro bombing victim dies after 22 years in coma". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 31 May 2023. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
- ^ "In One Swift Minute – Chana Nachenberg's Story". Archived from the original on 19 November 2023. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
- ^ "'This isn't a funeral. It's a Holocaust'". The Guardian. London. 11 August 2001. Archived from the original on 25 August 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
- ^ Inigo Gilmore (12 August 2001). "Israel warned Arafat of suicide bomb risk". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 May 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
- ISBN 9781592409013. Archivedfrom the original on 22 November 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
- ^ a b c d e "Suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem – 9-Aug-2001". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 9 August 2001. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
- ^ Jerusalem bombing: A war increasing in cruelty, fuelled by lust for revenge Archived 25 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 10 August 2001.
- ^ Who carried out suicide bombing? Archived 12 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 10 August 2001.
- ^ Glickman, Aviad (4 June 2009). "Court denies Sbarro bomber family's damages claim". Ynetnews. Archived from the original on 6 August 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
- ^ "Abdallah Barghouti sentenced to 67 life sentences". GxMSDev. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
- Ynetnews, 27 March 2006
- ^ Regards from Amman: The Tamimi Family and the Good Life Archived 7 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine by Meir Indor, TheJewishPress.com, 27 June 2012.
- Times of Israel, 1 April 2012.
- ^ "Israel releases list of Palestinian prisoners to be swapped". CNN. 16 October 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
- ^ Yaacov Lozowick, Right to Exist, 2003, p.20
- ^ Keren Malki website Archived 29 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine/
- ^ The power of numbers, Frimet Roth, Haaretz
- ISBN 9781594034770. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
- ProQuest 319330960.
- Jewish Advocate.
- ^ "Lesson on Faith: Sbarro Bombing and a Book on Kindness". Israel National News. 9 August 2011. Archived from the original on 22 January 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
- ^ The Associated Press. 24 September 2001. Archived from the originalon 11 March 2007. Retrieved 9 August 2006.
- ^ "An Exhibit on Campus Celebrates Grisly Deed". The New York Times. 25 September 2001. Archived from the original on 14 August 2006. Retrieved 9 August 2006.
- ^ Arafat closes 'suicide bombing' art show Archived 30 June 2004 at the Wayback Machine, BBC, 26 September 2001.
- ^ a b "Israel Takes New Actions After Suicide Bomb". ABC News. Archived from the original on 7 July 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
- ^ agencies, Staff and (9 August 2001). "Restaurant bomb kills 18". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 July 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
- ^ Morris, Nomi (10 August 2001). "Crowded Jerusalem pizzeria bombed". The Modesto Bee. p. 2. Archived from the original on 20 August 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
- Jerusalem Post, 17 October 2011.
- Ha'aretz. 16 October 2011. Archivedfrom the original on 15 August 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
- Ha'aretz. 16 October 2011. Archivedfrom the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
External links
- Suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem – Israeli MFA (with pictures)
- The Malki Foundation. Last accessed 9 August 2006
- Partners In Kindness. Last accessed 9 August 2006
- Gruesome exhibit marks anniversary of uprising. The Associated Press, 24 September 2001. Last accessed 9 August 2006
- Arafat closes 'suicide bombing' art show. BBC News. 26 September 2001. Last accessed 9 August 2006
- Photos of the murdered victims