2002 Hadera attack

2002 Hadera attack
2002 Hadera attack
Part of the Second Intifada militancy campaign
	class=notpageimage\| The attack site
Native name	הפיגוע באולם ארמון דוד
Location	Hadera, Israel
Coordinates	32°26′18″N 34°55′32″E / 32.43833°N 34.92556°E
Date	January 17, 2002; 22 years ago ; c. 9:45 pm (UTC+2)
Attack type	Mass shooting, massacre, murder-suicide, suicide bombing
Weapons	M16 rifle & grenades
Deaths	6 civilians (+1 assailant)
Injured	33 civilians
Perpetrator	al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility
Assailant	Abdul Salaam Sadek Hassouneh

On Thursday, January 17, 2002, a Palestinian terrorist, 24-year-old Abdul Salaam Sadek Hassouneh, killed six people and wounded 33 at a bat mitzvah celebration in Hadera, Israel.^[1]^[2]

Attack

The attack took place at 9:45 pm (GMT+2) as guests were departing.^[3] The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades assumed responsibility for the attack, claiming it was vengeance for the killing of its leader Raed Karmi. An Israeli police spokesman said the man, apparently on a suicide mission, had thrown several grenades into the Armon David wedding hall, where the Bat Mitzvah celebration had taken place, and detonated explosives on himself. The attacker was shot by police. A belt filled with explosives was found on the attacker.^[1]

Media coverage

Al Jazeera was criticized for bias in coverage of the massacre for not including in their coverage that the victims were attending a bat mitzvah and that the gunman crashed the event at a crowded banquet hall.^[4]

Perpetrator

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said the attacker, 24-year-old Abdel Salam Hassouna, was from a village near Nablus and launched the attack to avenge the death of Raed Karmi.^[1]

After the attack a video made earlier by the attacker was released, in which he is seen declaring: "I am doing this to avenge all the Palestinian martyrs."^[4]

Official reactions

Involved parties

Israel

Palestinian territories:

The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack but blamed Israel for provoking it.^[3]

International

United States: the US government condemned the Hadera attack "in the strongest possible terms," calling it a "horrific act of terrorism."^[3] The widow of the one American killed in the attack, Aharon Ellis, brought a lawsuit against the Palestinian Authority that received a $173 million default judgment in 2006, and in 2009 was settled out of court.^[5]