Timeline of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2002

March[edit]

• 1 March: IDF soldier Sgt. Ya'acov Avni, 20, from Kiryat Ata, was killed by Palestinian sniper fire in the Jenin refugee camp.^[3]
• 2 March: A suicide bombing near a yeshiva in a religious Jerusalem neighborhood killed 11 people and injured more than 50. The Palestinian detonated the bomb next to a group of women waiting with their baby carriages for their husbands to leave the nearby synagogue. Fatah took responsibilities for the attack.^[3] The bullet-ridden body of a Jerusalem police detective was discovered next to his trail motorcycle, near the Mar Saba Monastery in the Judean Desert.^[3]
• 3 March: A Palestinian sniper kills seven Israeli soldiers and three civilians at an IDF roadblock near the settlement of Ofra.^[3][14] Sgt. Steven Kenigsberg, 19, from Hod Hasharon, was killed and four soldiers were injured when a Palestinian gunman opened fire near the Kissufim crossing in the Gaza Strip. Both the Islamic Jihad and Tanzim claimed responsibility for the attack.^[3]
• 4 March: Six Palestinians, five of them children, were killed in Ramallah when a tank shelled a pickup truck and another vehicle belonging to a suspected Hamas militant. In Jenin, six more Palestinians were killed in a clash with Israeli soldiers. In Rafah refugee camp, two Palestinian gunmen and one civilian was killed and three buildings demolished.^[15]
• 5 March: Three people were killed in Tel Aviv when a Palestinian gunman opened fire on two adjacent restaurants.^[3] An Israeli woman was killed in shooting attack on the Bethlehem bypass "tunnel" road, south of Jerusalem, on her way to work. Her husband was injured.^[3] An 85-year-old Israeli was killed in a suicide bombing on Egged bus No. 823 as it entered the Afula central bus station.^[3]
• 6 March: 1st Lt. Pinhas Cohen, 23, from Jerusalem, was killed near the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis. Cpl.(res.) Alexander Nastarenko, 37, from Netanya, was killed when Palestinian gunmen crossed the border fence and ambushed an army jeep on the patrol road near Kibbutz Nir Oz.^[3]
• 7 March: Five Israeli teenagers were killed and 23 injured when a Hamas gunmen infiltrated the Gush Katif settlement of Atzmona, opening fire and throwing hand grenades at the school and nearby houses. One of those killed sustained third degree burns over 90% of his body after a grenade was thrown through the window of his dorm room. He died of his wounds in the hospital five hours after the attack.^[3]
• 8 March: St.-Sgt. Edward Korol, 20, of Ashdod, was killed by a Palestinian sniper in Tulkarem.^[3]
• 9 March: A 9-month-old baby and a man were killed when two Palestinians opened fire and threw grenades at cars and pedestrians in Netanya, close to the city's boardwalk and hotels.^[3] A Palestinian suicide bombing at Cafe Moment in central Jerusalem killed 11 people killed and injured 54 others.^[3]
• 10 March: St.-Sgt. Kobi Eichelboim, 21, from Givatayim, died from wounds sustained when a Palestinian gunman, disguised as a worker, opened fire at the entrance to Netzarim in the Gaza Strip earlier that day.^[3]
• 12 March: One Israeli was killed and another wounded in a shooting attack at the Kiryat Sefer checkpoint, east of Modi'in Illit.^[3] Six people (three men and three women, including a teenager) killed when two gunmen opened fire from an ambush on Israeli vehicles traveling between Shlomi and Kibbutz Metzuba near the northern border with Lebanon.^[3]
• 13 March: Lt. Gil Badihi, 21, from Nataf, died from injuries sustained when he was shot in the head by a Palestinian gunman in Ramallah. He was inside his tank, evacuating infantry personnel at the time.^[3]
• 14 March: An Israeli tank is destroyed by a mine near Netzarim, killing three soldiers and wounding two. DFLP and Fatah claimed responsibility.^[3]
• 17 March: An 18-year-old girl was killed and 16 people were injured when a gunman opened fire on passersby in the center of Kfar Saba.^[16][3]
• 19 March: 1st Lt. Tal Zemach, 20, of Kibbutz Hulda, was killed and three soldiers were injured when Palestinian militants opened fire on them in the Jordan Valley. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.^[3]
• 20 March: Seven Israelis killed in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus No. 823 traveling from Tel Aviv to Nazareth, near Afula.^[17][3]
• 21 March: Three people killed and 86 injured when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb, packed with metal spikes and nails, in the center of a crowd of shoppers on King George Street in central Jerusalem.^[18][3]
• 24 March: Avi Sabag, 24, from Otniel, was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack south of Hebron.^[3] Esther Kleiman, 23, from Neve Tzuf, was killed in a shooting attack while traveling to work in a reinforced Egged bus northwest of Ramallah.^[3]
• 26 March: Major Cengiz Soytunc of Turkey and Catherine Berruex of Switzerland, members of the TIPH observer force, were killed in an ambush shooting by a Palestinian gunman near Halhul in Hebron.^[3]
• 27 March: The Passover Massacre: 30 Israelis were killed and 140 wounded when a suicide bomber exploded in the crowded dining room of the Park Hotel in Netanya.^[19][3]
• 28 March: Rachel and David Gavish, both 50, their son Avraham Gavish, 20, and Rachel's father Yitzhak Kanner, 83, were killed when a militant infiltrated Elon Moreh in Samaria, entered their home, and opened fire. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.^[3]
• 29 March: Tuvia Wisner, 79, of Petah Tikva and Michael Orlansky, 70, of Tel-Aviv were killed when a Palestinian militant infiltrated the Neztarim settlement in the Gaza Strip.^[3] Lt. Boaz Pomerantz, 22, of Kiryat Shmona and St.-Sgt. Roman Shliapstein, 22, of Ma'ale Efraim were killed during IDF action in Ramallah, part of Operation Defensive Shield.^[3] Rachel Levy, 17, and Haim Smadar, 55, both of Jerusalem, were killed and 28 others injured, two seriously, in a suicide bombing by a female bomber in the Kiryat Yovel supermarket in Jerusalem. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility.^[3]
• 30 March: Border Policeman Sgt.-Maj. Constantine Danilov, 23, of Or Akiva was killed in Baka al-Garbiyeh during an exchange of fire with two Palestinians attempting to cross into Israel for a suicide attack. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility.^[3]
• 31 March: A suicide bombing in Haifa at the Matza restaurant killed 16 and injured over 40. Hamas claimed responsibility. Victims included Suheil Adawi, Dov Chernobroda, Shimon Koren and his sons Ran and Gal, Moshe Levin, Danielle Menchel, Orly Ofir, Aviel Ron and his children Ofer and Anat, Ya'akov Shani, Adi Shiran, and Daniel Carlos Wegman. Carlos Yerushalmi and Shimon Shiran later died from their injuries.^[3]

April[edit]

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• 1 April: A 19-year-old police volunteer was killed in Jerusalem, when a Palestinian suicide bomber driving toward the city center blew himself up after being stopped at a roadblock. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.^[3] Sgt.-Maj. Ofir Roth, 22, of Gan Yoshiya, an IDF reserve soldier, was killed at a roadblock near Jerusalem's Har Homa neighborhood by Palestinian sniper fire from Beit Sahur, near Bethlehem.^[3]
• 3 April: IDF reservist Maj. Moshe Gerstner, 29, of Rishon Lezion was killed in Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield.^[3]
• 4 April: Rachel Charhi, 36, of Bat-Yam, succumbed to wounds from a suicide bombing at a cafe in Tel-Aviv on 30 March. About 30 others were injured. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility.^[3] Border Police Supt. Patrick Pereg, 30, of Rosh Ha'ayin, was killed while attempting to arrest a member of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.^[3] Sgt.-Maj.(res.) Einan Sharabi, 32, of Rehovot; Lt. Nissim Ben-David, 22, of Ashdod; and St.-Sgt. Gad Ezra, 23, of Bat-Yam were killed during IDF action in Jenin (Operation Defensive Shield).^[3]
• 5 April: Sgt. Marom Moshe Fisher, 19, of Moshav Avigdor; Sgt. Ro'i Tal, 21, of Ma'alot; and Sgt. Oded Kornfein, 20, of Kibbutz Ha'on were killed in fire exchanges in Jenin (Operation Defensive Shield).^[3]
• 6 April: St.-Sgt. Nisan Avraham, 26, of Lod was killed and five other soldiers were lightly injured in a shootout at the entrance to Rafiah Yam in the Gaza Strip. The attackers, members of the Islamic Jihad, were killed.^[3]
• 8 April: St.-Sgt. Matanya Robinson, 21, of Kibbutz Tirat Zvi, and Sgt. Shmuel Weiss, 19, of Kiryat Arba were killed in an ambush in the Jenin refugee camp (Operation Defensive Shield).^[3]
• 9 April: Thirteen IDF soldiers were killed and 7 injured in Jenin by Palestinian militants during an ambush. Explosives and gunfire from rooftops were used against them.^[3] Maj. Assaf Assoulin, 30, of Tel Aviv was killed in an exchange of fire in Nablus.^[3] St.-Sgt. Gedaliah Mellick, 21, of Jerusalem was killed and 12 soldiers were wounded in Jenin when an explosive charge was thrown at their patrol.^[3]
• 10 April: Eight people killed and 22 wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged bus #960, en route from Haifa to Jerusalem, which exploded near Kibbutz Yagur, east of Haifa.^[20]
• 12 April: Seven people killed by a woman suicide bomber who detonated a powerful charge at a bus stop on Jaffa road next to the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market. Another 104 people were injured in the blast, among them nine Arabs. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
• 27 April: Four people, including a 5-year-old girl, killed when Palestinian gunmen dressed in IDF uniforms and combat gear cut through the settlement's defensive perimeter fence and entered Adora, west of Hebron. The gunmen entered several homes, firing on people in their bedrooms.^[21]
• 29 April: Israeli forces invaded the West Bank town of Hebron and killed nine Palestinians. In the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a Palestinian gunmen was shot dead by Israeli snipers.^[22]
• From 3 April to 12 April: 52 Palestinians, 5-22 of them civilians (sources vary) and 23 Israeli soldiers were confirmed killed in Jenin.^[23]

May[edit]

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• 7 May: 15 people killed and 60 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated a powerful charge in a game club located on the 3rd floor of a building in Rishon LeZion, causing part of the building to collapse. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.^[24]
• 12 May: An Israeli settler of Pe'at Sadeh in the southern Gaza Strip was shot and killed by a Palestinian laborer, when he came to pick him up at a checkpoint.
• 19 May: Three Israelis killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded section of Netanya's open-air market.
• 21 May: One Israeli injured when a bomb explodes Kehilat Katzuvitch Street in northern Tel Aviv.
• 22 May: Two people (one of them a teenager) are killed in suicide bombing in the heart of Rishon LeZion.
• 27 May: A woman and her infant granddaughter, aged 14 months, of Petah Tikva were killed when a suicide bomber detonated himself near an ice cream parlor outside a shopping mall.
• 28 May: Two Israelis were killed when shots were fired at the car in which they were traveling south on the Ramallah bypass road. Three yeshiva high school students killed in Itamar, southeast of Nablus, when a Palestinian gunman infiltrated the community and opened fire on the teenagers.
• 29 May: Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops; one in the southern Gaza Strip in Khan Yunis and one gunman belonging to Islamic Jihad in Jenin on the West Bank. Additionally, four homes were blown up and 20 damaged in Rafah.^[25]

June[edit]

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• 5 June: 17 people killed and 43 wounded when a car packed with a large quantity of explosives struck Egged bus No. 830 traveling from Tel-Aviv to Tiberias at the Megiddo junction near Afula. The car exploded near the gasoline tank of the bus, causing it to burst into flames. Most of the casualties were soldiers who were on their way to their bases. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.^[26]
• 6 June: 18-year-old Israeli student died of gunshot wounds to the chest sustained in a shooting attack near Ofra, north of Ramallah, when Palestinian gunmen opened fire in an ambush.
• 8 June: Three Israelis, including a ninth month pregnant woman, were shot dead when gunmen infiltrated the community of Carmei Tzur north of Hebron.
• 8 June: A militant infiltrated into the Jordan Valley community of Mechora. A woman was murdered and her husband, 30, wounded.
• 11 June: A 14-year-old girl was killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber set off a relatively small pipe bomb at a shwarma restaurant in Herzliya.
• 18 June: 19 people killed and 74 wounded in a suicide bombing at the Patt junction in Egged bus no. 32A traveling from Gilo to the center of Jerusalem. The bomber boarded the bus at the stop in Beit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood opposite Gilo, and almost immediately detonated the large bomb which he carried in a bag stuffed with ball bearings. The blast destroyed the front half of the bus, packed with people on their way to work and schoolchildren.
• 19 June: Seven people, including a 5-year-old girl and her grandmother, were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post at the French Hill intersection in northern Jerusalem.^[27]
• 20 June: Five people, including a mother and three of her sons, were murdered when a gunman entered their home in Itamar, south of Nablus, and opened fire.

July[edit]

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• 16 July: Nine people (two men, six women, and an infant child) were killed in an attack on Dan bus no. 189 traveling from Bnei Brak to Emmanuel in the northern West Bank. Two 20-kilo bombs were set off about 200 meters from the town's entrance, damaging the bus's front tires and forcing it off the road. The explosion damaged the bus doors, trapping the passengers inside. The militants then started to shoot at the bus, firing through the unprotected roof and throwing grenades through the narrow upper windows, which are not armored.
• 17 July: Five people were killed and about 40 injured in a double suicide bombing on Neve Sha'anan Street near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv. The bombs, which were strapped to the waists of the bombers, contained nails and metal shards.^[28]
• 31 July: Nine people, some of them American students, were killed and over 80 wounded when a bomb exploded in the Frank Sinatra cafeteria on the Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus in Jerusalem.^[29]

August[edit]

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• 1 August: A 27-year-old Israeli man was found shot in the head at point-blank range and bound, west of Tulkarem, near the Green Line.
• 4 August: Nine people were killed in the suicide bombing of Egged bus No. 361 traveling from Haifa to Safed at the Meron junction in northern Israel. The blast blew off the roof of the bus, which then burst into flames, killing or wounding nearly everyone inside.^[30] A 34-year-old Israeli and a 52-year-old Palestinian were killed when a Palestinian gunman opened fire with a pistol near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City.
• 5 August: A young Israeli couple were killed when gunmen opened fire on their car as they were traveling on the Ramallah-Nablus road near Eli in the northern West Bank. One of their children was wounded in the attack.
• 10 August: A 31-year-old woman was killed and her husband seriously wounded when a Palestinian gunman infiltrated Moshav Mechora in the Jordan Valley, and opened fire outside their home.

September[edit]

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• 5 September: A Merkava heavy tank was destroyed by a mine near the Kissufim Crossing, killing 1 soldiers and wounding 3. Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility.
• 18 September: The charred body of a 67-year-old Israeli construction contractor was found near al-Azzariya, a Palestinian village near the settlement of Ma'ale Adummim, east of Jerusalem. A 36-year-old Israeli was killed when gunmen opened fire on his car near Mevo Dotan, north of Jenin in the West Bank. An Israeli policeman was killed and three people were wounded in a suicide bombing at a bus stop at the Umm al Fahm junction.
• 19 September: Five people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in Dan bus No. 4 on Allenby Street, opposite the Great Synagogue in Tel-Aviv. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.^[31]
• 23 September: A 48-year-old man was killed and three of his children wounded, one seriously, in a shooting attack near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron during the Sukkot festival.

October[edit]

• 8 October: A 51-year-old Israeli was critically wounded in an ambush shooting south of Hebron. He died of his wounds the following day. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
• 9 October: Palestinian gunmen shot and wounded four Israelis traveling in a car near Hebron.^[32]
• 10 October: A 71-year-old woman was killed and about 30 people were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up while trying to board Dan bus No. 87 across from Bar-Ilan University on the Geha highway (Route 4) in central Israel.
• 21 October: 14 persons were killed when a bus was blown up in a suicide attack by a bomber driving an explosives-laden jeep near the Karkur junction.
• 27 October: Three IDF soldiers killed in a suicide bombing at the Sonol gas station at the entrance to Ariel in the northern West Bank while trying to prevent the bomber from detonating the bomb. About 20 people were wounded in the bombing.^[33]
• 29 October: A woman and two 14-year-old girls were shot dead by a Palestinian gunman who infiltrated the settlement of Hermesh, north of Tulkarm, in the northern West Bank. A soldier and a resident were wounded in the assault.

November[edit]

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• 4 November: Two persons killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself at a Kfar Saba shopping mall.
• 6 November: Two Israeli farmers were shot to dead by a Palestinian gunman posing as a worker near Pe'at Sadeh in the southern Gaza Strip.
• 10 November: Five people, including a mother and her 4- and 5-year-old children, were shot and killed by a gunman who infiltrated Kibbutz Metzer, located east of Hadera near the Green Line. The gunman shot the mother and children as they hugged one another.
• 15 November: 12 people were killed, nine soldiers and three paramilitary security guards from the Kiryat Arba emergency response team, and 15 wounded in Hebron when Palestinian militants drew security forces into an ambush.^[34]
• 21 November: 11 people killed and about 50 wounded in a suicide bombing on a No. 20 Egged bus in the Kiryat Menahem neighborhood of Jerusalem.^[35] Most of the victims were high-school students on their way to school.
• Iain Hook shot and killed by an Israeli sniper. He was a British worker for UNRWA in Jenin.^[36]
• 28 November: 2002 Beit She'an attack: Six Israelis and two militants were killed, and 34 Israelis were wounded after the two perpetrators opened fire and threw grenades at the Likud polling station in Bet She'an, where party members were casting their votes in the Likud primary.^[37] Kenyan hotel bombing: Three Israelis, including two brothers, and 10 Kenyans killed when a car bomb exploded in the lobby of the Israeli-owned beachfront Paradise Hotel, frequented almost exclusively by Israeli tourists near Mombasa in Kenya. 21 Israelis and 60 Kenyans were wounded in the attack.^[38]

December[edit]

• 20 December: A 40-year-old rabbi was shot and killed on the Kissufim corridor road (in the Gaza Strip) while driving with his wife and six children to attend a pre-wedding Sabbath celebration in Afula. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.