Dolphinarium discotheque suicide bombing
Dolphinarium suicide bombing | |
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Part of the Second Intifada militancy campaign | |
File:DolphinariumNightClub.2012.04.16.jpg
The abandoned ruins of the Dolphinarium in 2012.
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Location | Tel Aviv, Israel |
Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
Date | 1 June 2001 23:30 pm (GMT+2) |
Attack type
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Suicide attack by Saeed Hotari |
Deaths | 25 victims |
Injured | 100+ |
Perpetrators | Lone Palestinian assailant (Saeed Hotari). Both Islamic Jihad and a group calling itself "Hezbollah-Palestine" originally claimed responsibility. |
The Dolphinarium discotheque suicide bombing was a Hamas terrorist attack on 1 June 2001 in which terrorist Saeed Hotari blew himself up outside of a nightclub in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing 21 Israeli teenagers and 4 adults.[1][2][3] The majority of the victims were teenage girls, whose families had immigrated to Tel Aviv from the former Soviet Union.
Contents
The attack
Suicide bomber Saeed Hotari was standing in line on a Friday night in front of the Dolphinarium, when the area was packed with youngsters (most of them Russian new arrivals) waiting for admission. Survivors of the attack later described how the young Palestinian bomber appeared to taunt his victims before the explosion, wandering among them dressed in clothes that led some to mistake him for an orthodox Jew from Asia, and banging a drum packed with explosives and ball bearings, while repeating the words in Hebrew: "Something's going to happen".[4] At 23:27, he detonated his explosive device.[5] It was the second attack in five months on the same target.[6] Witnesses claimed that body parts lay all over the area, and that bodies were piled one above another on the sidewalk before being collected. Many civilians in the vicinity of the bombing rushed to assist emergency services.
Fatalities
One Israeli soldier and 20 civilians, mostly teenagers whose families immigrated from the former Soviet Union, died in the attack:[7]
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Perpetrators
Both Islamic Jihad and a group calling itself "Hezbollah-Palestine" originally claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, only to later retract the claims.[29] Later on it was revealed that the attack was carried out by Saeed Hotari, age 22, a militant linked to the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas.[30]
Official reactions
- Involved parties
Israel:
- Israeli officials called the attack a "massacre".[31]
Palestinian territories:
- President of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat condemned the attack and called for a cease-fire.[32]
- Supranational
- United Nations – U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that he "condemns this indiscriminate terrorist attack in the strongest possible terms." and that the attack "underlines the urgency of breaking the cycle of violence".[33]
- International
- Kuwait – The Kuwaiti Foreign Minister and acting Premier Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah stated that he does not support Palestinian suicide bombings against civilians.[34]
- United States – U.S. president George W. Bush stated that he condemns the attack in the strongest terms and that "There is no justification for senseless attacks against innocent civilians."[35]
Aftermath
After the attack many in the Israeli public demanded a harsh military retaliation; nevertheless, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to not take any immediate retaliatory actions. US and other governments applied heavy diplomatic pressure on Israel to refrain from action.[32] Nevertheless, the attack was later on noted as one of the reasons cited by the Israeli government for building the Israeli West Bank barrier.[36]
In Ramallah dozens of Palestinians celebrated in the streets and fired in the air as a sign of celebration.[37] The bomber, Saeed Hotari, was praised as a martyr by his father.[38] President George W. Bush demanded that Yasser Arafat condemn the terrorist act.[39]
According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli-based organization with close ties to the IDF, among the materials seized by the IDF in the course of Operation Defensive Shield were two documents issued by the Martyrs' Families and Injured Care Establishment, which is under the authority of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Social Affairs. The documents detail the transfer of $US2,000 to the father of the suicide bomber, who was living in Jordan at that time (18 June 2001). According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the transfer was made despite the suicide bomber's Hamas affiliation, despite the father's public support of the suicide bombing attack, and despite Arafat's public condemnation of the bombing.[40]
See also
- Civilian casualties in the Second Intifada
- Shevah Mofet
- Israeli casualties of war
- Palestinian political violence
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Ynet – פיגוע בדולפינריום – , ynet.co.il; accessed 2 September 2015.
- ↑ Chris McGreal,3,000 dead yet peace remains elusive, guardian.co.uk, 29 September 2003.
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaaT7vdSXrI#t=120
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Bomb horror hits Tel Aviv disco, The Jerusalem Post, 4 June 2001.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Shalom, Silvan. "Q&A with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom", Haaretz, 8 May 2008.
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 Deborah Sontag, "Arafat Calls for Cease-Fire, Deploring Tel Aviv Attack", New York Times, 3 June 2001.
- ↑ Press Release SG/SM/7829, domino.un.org, 1 June 2001.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Israel Foreign Ministry, Four Years of Conflict: Israel's war against terrorism, 3 October 2004, p. 28
- ↑ David Rudge, "Bomb horror hits Tel Aviv disco", jpost.com; accessed 2 September 2015.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Tel-Aviv suicide bombing at the Dolphin disco, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs; accessed 2 September 2015
- Dolphin Tragedy – Memorial site
- At Least 17 Dead In Tel Aviv Suicide Bombing, Times Daily, 2 June 2001
- At Least 17 Dead, 86 Wounded In Tel Aviv Beachfront Bombing, The Item, 2 June 2001
- Eyewitness accounts from the scene of the massacre, Ynet, 2 June 2001 (Hebrew)
- Inside the mind of a suicide bomber, ABC News, 6 December 2001
- Devotion, desire drive youths to 'martyrdom', USA Today; 26 June 2001
- Driver of the Dolphinarium attack terrorist – charged with homicide, Ynet, 10 July 10, 2001 (in Hebrew)
- Use mdy dates from October 2012
- Pages with broken file links
- Terrorist incidents in Israel in 2001
- Hamas
- Mass murder in 2001
- Israeli casualties in the Second Intifada
- Massacres in Israel during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Suicide bombing in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Terrorist attacks attributed to Palestinian militant groups
- Terrorist incidents in Tel Aviv
- Palestinian terrorism
- 21st century in Tel Aviv
- Attacks on nightclubs