Sbarro restaurant massacre

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Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing
Location	Jerusalem
Target(s)	Sbarro pizza restaurant
Date	August 9, 2001 2:00 pm –
Attack Type	suicide bomber
Fatalities	15
Injuries	130
Perpetrator(s)	Hamas

The Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing took place on August 9, 2001 in Jerusalem, Israel.

At the time of the massacre, the Jerusalem branch of the Sbarro pizza restaurant chain was located at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in Israel. Just before 2:00 p.m. on a summer holiday afternoon, when the restaurant was filled with customers and pedestrian traffic outside was at its peak, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt weighing 5 to 10 kilograms, containing explosives, nails, nuts and bolts, detonated his bomb.

In the blast 15 people (including 7 children) were killed, and 130 wounded. Both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad initially claimed responsibility. Several Hamas members were subsequently captured by the authorities, tried, convicted and imprisoned. The suicide bomber who died in the course of carrying out the attack was later identified to be Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri from the Palestinian West Bank town of Aqaba. Izz al-Masri was 22 at the time and the son of a successful restaurant owner, and from an affluent land-owning family. He was escorted to the restaurant by Ahlam Tamimi, a 20-year-old female university student and part-time journalist, who had disguised herself as a Jewish tourist for the occasion. Ahlam Tamimi was sentenced to 16 life terms. She later commented that "I am not sorry for what I did" and does not recognize Israel’s existence. 5 of the 15 people killed were a set of parents along with their three children (two other of their children survived).

1 Killed
2 Palestinian celebrations
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Killed

Giora Balash, 60, from São Paulo, Brazil
Zvika Golombek, 26, from Karmiel, Israel
Shoshana Yehudit (Judy) Greenbaum, 31, from Passaic, New Jersey, USA
Tehila Maoz, 18, from Jerusalem, Israel
Frieda Mendelsohn, 62, from Jerusalem
Michal Raziel, 16, from Ramot, Jerusalem
Malka Chana (Malki) Roth, 15, from Ramot, Jerusalem (memorial) (originally from Melbourne, Australia)
Mordechai Schijveschuurder, 43, from Neria, West Bank
Tzira Schijveschuurder, 41, from Neria
Ra'aya Schijveschuurder, 14, from Neria
Avraham Yitzhak Schijveschuurder, 4, from Neria
Hemda Schijveschuurder, 2, from Neria
Lily Shimashvili, 33, from Jerusalem
Tamara Shimashvili, 8, from Jerusalem
Yocheved Shoshan, 10, from Jerusalem

[edit] Palestinian celebrations

Palestinian students at the Al Najah exhibition

After the suicide bombing, Palestinian university students at the An-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus created an exhibition celebrating it ^[1] ^[2]. The exhibit’s main attraction was a room-sized re-enactment of the bombing at Sbarro. The installation featured broken furniture splattered with fake blood and human body parts as well as an idolized portrait of the suicide bomber holding a Koran and an automatic rifle. Also featured in the exhibition is a room with mannequins dressed as suicide bombers carrying automatic rifles in one hand and and the Koran in the other, and aside another mannequin dressed up to resemble an Orthodox Jew with a taped voice quoting from the Muslim Hadith^[3]: "O believer, there is a Jewish man behind me. Come and kill him."^[1] The entrance to the exhibition was illustrated with a mural depicting the bombing.