On the morning of June 18, 2002, at 7:50 am, a
Palestiniansuicide bomber from
Bethlehem got onto the
Egged line 32A
bus, which came from the
Gilo neighborhood and stopped at
Beit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem.[2] The bomber boarded the bus and exploded himself in the front. His
explosive belt included metal balls for
shrapnel in order to maximize casualties.[3]
The perpetrators
PalestinianIslamist group
Hamas 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 in
Nablus. 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.[4][5] Two residents of the
East Jerusalem suburb of
Jabel Mukaber were tried and convicted for transporting the suicide bomber. During a commando raid in Nablus on June 30, Israeli soldiers killed senior Hamas bomb-maker Muhaned Taher, who according to Israel was behind this and other attacks.[6]
Aftermath
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adding to it. (April 2011)
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, 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.[7]