The Patt junction bus bombing was a suicide bombing on an Egged bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

 carried out by Hamas

Hamas

Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...

 in Jerusalem on June 18, 2002, killing 19 people and wounding over 74. Seventeen of the dead were residents of Gilo

Gilo

Gilo is a neighborhood in southern East Jerusalem with a population of 40,000, mostly Jewish. It is one of the five ring neighborhoods of Jerusalem and is built on land in the West Bank that was annexed to Israel in 1980 under the Jerusalem Law. The international community regards it as an...

.

The attack

On the morning of June 18, 2002, at 7:50 a.m., a Palestinian

Palestinian people

The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...

 suicide bomber from Bethlehem

Bethlehem

Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...

 got onto the Egged line 32A bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

, which came from the Gilo

Gilo

Gilo is a neighborhood in southern East Jerusalem with a population of 40,000, mostly Jewish. It is one of the five ring neighborhoods of Jerusalem and is built on land in the West Bank that was annexed to Israel in 1980 under the Jerusalem Law. The international community regards it as an...

 neighborhood and stopped at Beit Safafa

Beit Safafa

Beit Safafa is an Arab neighborhood in south Jerusalem midway between the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Patt and Gilo, on the outskirts of Bethlehem. Beit Safafa had a population of 5,463 in 2000. It covers an area of 1,577 dunams.-History:...

, an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem. The bomber boarded the bus and exploded himself in the front. His explosive belt

Explosive belt

An explosive belt is an improvised explosive device, a belt or a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers...

 included metal balls for shrapnel in order to maximize casualties.

The perpetrators

Palestinian

Palestinian territories

The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...

 Islamist group Hamas

Hamas

Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...

 claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack. The suicide bomber was identified as Muhammad al-Ghoul, a 22-year-old student at An-Najah National University

An-Najah National University

An-Najah National University is a Palestinian non-governmental public university governed by a board of Trustees. It is located in Nablus, in the northern West Bank. The university has over 16,500 students and 300 professors in 19 faculties...

 in Nablus

Nablus

Nablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...

. He strapped explosives packed with nails to his body and boarded the bus during the morning rush hour as schoolchildren and commuters travelled to downtown Jerusalem from Gilo. The explosion lifted the bus off the ground, tore off its roof and sent bodies flying through the windows. Two residents of the East Jerusalem

East Jerusalem

East Jerusalem or Eastern Jerusalem refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War...

 suburb of Jabel Mukaber

Jabel Mukaber

Jabel Mukaber is a predominantly Arab neighborhood in southern East Jerusalem. It is bordered by Armon HaNetziv to the west, Abu Tor and Silwan to the north and Sur Baher to the south...

 were tried and convicted for transporting a suicide bomber.

Fatalities

Boaz Aluf, 54, of Jerusalem Shani Avi-Zedek, 15, of Jerusalem Leah Baruch, 59, of Jerusalem Mendel Bereson, 72, of Jerusalem Raphael Berger, 28, of Jerusalem Michal Biazi, 24, of Jerusalem Tatiana Braslavsky, 41, of Jerusalem Galila Bugala, 11, of Jerusalem Raisa Dikstein, 67, of Jerusalem Dr. Moshe Gottlieb, 70, of Jerusalem

Baruch Gruani, 60, of Jerusalem Orit Hayla, 21, of Jerusalem Helena Ivan, 63, of Jerusalem Iman Kabha, 26, of Barta'a Barta'a Barta'a is a town that straddles both sides of the Green Line and the Wadi Ara region.Western Barta'a is in the Haifa District of Israel, and forms part of the Basma local council... Shiri Negari, 21, of Jerusalem Gila Nakav, 55, of Jerusalem Yelena Plagov, 42, of Jerusalem Liat Yagen, 24 of Jerusalem Rahamim Zidkiyahu, 51, of Jerusalem

Charred bus exhibit

The charred remains of the bus were shipped to America and displayed at the biannual Jewish Expo fair in New York at the initiative of Zaka

Zaka

Zaka is a district in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe and is located 86 km southeast from Masvingo in the Ndanga communal land. The village was established in 1923 and lies in a very low-lying area hence the Shona derived name kwo-ka-zaka which means to where it is going down.- Background :Zaka...

, an Israeli rescue and body parts recovery organization whose volunteers scrape up fragments of blood and flesh from bomb scenes for burial in keeping with Jewish law. Zaka said its aim was to increase awareness of its work and show the effects of suicide bombings.

See also

• Shmuel Hanavi bus bombing
• Kiryat Menachem bus bombing
• List of massacres committed during the Al-Aqsa Intifada

External links

• Suicide bombing at Patt junction in Jerusalem - 18-Jun-2002 - published at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Diameter of the Bomb, Documentary about the bombing