French Hill massacres
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French Hill massacres refer to numerous attacks by Palestinians in the Jerusalem neighborhood of the French Hill, a neighborhood in north-central Jerusalem. It is located in territory captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967.
Especially targeted has been the French Hill Junction, which interconnects Northern Jerusalem to Maale Adumim and the Dead Sea.
A US News and World Report Article entitled: "Jerusalem's Violent Crossroads" explains that "The busy thoroughfare, which divides the Jewish neighborhood of French Hill from the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat, is the most accessible corner in the city for a West Bank terrorist looking for a crowd of Israelis." [1]
[edit] List of attacks
- On September 22, 1992, a border policeman, Avinoam Peretz, was killed at the junction. Hamas took responsilibty.
- On July, 1993, a car was hijacked in the junction by a Hamas terrorist, and the woman driving the car was killed.
- On February 26, 1996, a car was deliberately driven over a group of civilian pedestrians in the junction, killing civilian Flora Yehiel, 28, of Kiryat Ata.[2]
- On March 27, 2001, 28 people were injured, two seriously, in a suicide bombing on a northbound No. 6 bus at the French Hill Junction. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.[3]
- On Sept 15, 2001, Meir Weisshaus, 23, of Jerusalem, was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting on the Ramot-French Hill road.[4]
- On November 4, 2001. Shoshana Ben Ishai, 16, of Betar Illit, and Menashe (Meni) Regev, 14, of Jerusalem were killed when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire with a sub-machine gun shortly before 16:00 at a No. 25 Egged bus at the French Hill junction in northern Jerusalem. 45 people were injured in the attack.[5]
- On June 19, 2002, an Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades suicide attack at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post at the French Hill interesection killed 10 civilians. Among them were Shmuel Yerushalmi, 17, of Shilo, and Gal Eisenman, 5, of Ma'ale Adumim, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post at the French Hill intersection in northern Jerusalem.[7]
- On May 18, 2003, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt, detonated himself on a bus at the French Hill Junction. Seven Israelis were killed, and 20 were wounded. The victims were Olga Brenner, 52; Yitzhak Moyal, 64; Nelly Perov, 55; Marina Tsahivershvili, 44; Shimon Ustinsky, 68; and Roni Yisraeli, 34 - all of the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood in Jerusalem; and Ghalab Tawil, 42, of Shuafat. [8]
- On March 19, 2004, George Khoury, 20, a Christian Arab and the son of well-known veteran attorney Elias Khoury of Beit Hanina, was shot to death from a vehicle while jogging in French Hill. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the attack, later published an apology.[9]
- On September 22, 2004, an 18-year-old female suicide bomber belonging to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades killed 2 people and wounded 33 in the crowded bus station at the junction. [10]
