A suicide bombing occurred on March 21, 2002 outside a clothing store and toy shop on King George Street in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Three Israeli civilians were killed in the attack. The Palestinian militant organization

al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades () is a coalition of Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank. The organization has been designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States. L ...

claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack

On Thursday afternoon, 21 March 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated the explosive device, hidden underneath his jacket, in the middle of Jerusalem's shopping district in the King George Street in downtown Jerusalem amongst a crowd of shoppers. The blast killed three civilians and more than 40 people were wounded, seven of them seriously.

The perpetrators

After the attack the Palestinian

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

claimed responsibility for the bombing and stated that the perpetrator was Mohammad Hashaika, a 22-year-old from the West Bank village of Talluza near Nablus. Hashaika was a member of the

Tanzim ''Tanzim'' ( ar, تنظيم ', "Organization") is a militant faction of the Palestinian Fatah movement. Overview The Tanzim militia, founded in 1995 by Yasser Arafat and other Fatah leaders to counter Palestinian Islamism, is widely consider ...

and a former Palestinian policeman. Later on, it was revealed that Hashaika was actually arrested for allegedly planning to carry out an earlier attack. Nevertheless, the Palestinian authority released him a week before he managed to carry out this suicide bombing.

References

External links

Bomb rips through Jerusalem shopping centre
- published on

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

on 21 March 2002
Jerusalem Blast Kills 3, Hurts 100
- published on The Daily News of New York City on 22 March 2002 {{coord, 31.7820, N, 35.2168, E, source:wikidata, display=title 2002 murders in Asia Suicide bombings in 2002 Suicide bombing in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Terrorist incidents in Israel in 2002 Terrorist attacks attributed to Palestinian militant groups Terrorist incidents in Jerusalem 2000s in Jerusalem March 2002 events in Asia Terrorist incidents in Jerusalem in the 2000s