An attack took place on the night of March 7, 2002 at the Otzem Pre-Military Preparatory School in the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

of Atzmona in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

in which five of the seminary students were killed and twenty-three were injured.

Background

March 2002 was the deadliest month of the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

, known in Israel as "Black March". During the month, 135 people were killed in over a dozen attacks, and there was a suicide bombing once every two days on average. In addition to the Atzmona attack, notable attacks during the month included the Yeshivat Beit Yisrael bombing that killed 10 Israeli civilians on 2 March, the Wadi al-Haramiya sniper attack on 3 March that killed 10 Israelis, and the

Café Moment bombing The Café Moment bombing was a Palestinian suicide attacks, Palestinian suicide bombing of a coffeehouse, coffee shop in downtown Jerusalem, that killed 11 Israelis, Israeli civilians and left 65 others wounded. It was carried out on March 9, 20 ...

that killed 11 Israeli civilians on 9 March. After the

Passover massacre The Passover massacre was a suicide bombing carried out by Hamas at the Park Hotel in Netanya, Israel on 27 March 2002, during a Passover seder. 30 civilians were killed in the attack and 140 were injured. It was the deadliest attack against ...

on 27 March killed 30 people celebrating the Jewish holiday of

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...

, the Israeli government launched

Operation Defensive Shield Operation Defensive Shield ( ) was a 2002 Israeli military operation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank during the Second Intifada. Lasting for just over a month, it was the largest combat operation in the territory since the 1967 Arab–Israe ...

targeting Palestinian militant capabilities in refugee camps and cities in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

that had developed after the Israeli withdrawal after the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

Massacre

On March 7, 2002, at around 11:30 p.m., a terrorist from the Jebaliya refugee camp, armed with an automatic weapon, entered the Atzmona settlement in the southern Gaza Strip. He entered the settlement from the territory of the neighboring Arab village of Hamuasi, cutting a passage in the barbed wire that surrounded Atzmona. Then he went to the building of training courses for military service (“mekhina kdam-tsvait”). Having entered a room intended for classes on the study of religious texts, the terrorist opened fire from a Kalashnikov assault rifle at students studying in the building and threw several

grenade A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a Shell (projectile), shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A mod ...

s. After that, he ran out into the street and started shooting at passers-by and houses. He continued until he was eliminated by one of the residents of the settlement, an

Israeli Defense Forces Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli (b ...

soldier. From the moment the attack began until the militant's death, 10 to 20 minutes has passed, during which time he managed to shoot 9 machine gun magazines and throw 7 grenades. The attack killed five Israelis and injured 23 people were injured, four seriously. The wounded were evacuated to Soroka Hospital in

Beer Sheva Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most po ...

Circumstances and further events

The

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (; 1881 or 19 December 1882 – 20 November 1935) was a Syrian Muslim preacher and a leader in the local struggles against British and French Mandatory rule in the Levant and an opponent of Zionism in the 1920s and 1930s. Qassam was born in ...

organization (the military wing of the

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

movement) took responsibility for the attack. The terrorist was identified as 19-year-old (according to other sources, 17-year-oldDavid M. Rosen. Farhat, Maryam Mohammad Yousif (aka Umm Nidal) (born 1950) // Child Soldiers: A Reference Handbook. — ABC-CLIO, 2012. — P. 154. —
ISBN 978-1-59884-526-6.) Muhammad Fathi Farhat, a native of Gaza. The day after the Atzmona massacre, the Israel Defense Forces carried out major operations in the Gaza Strip in search of other militants. IDF operations killed 16 Palestinians in two villages near Khan Younis in the southern part of the strip, including the head of the area's security agency, General Ahmad Mufrij, who became the highest-ranking Palestinian security official killed since the start of the Al-Aqsa intifada. Four more Palestinians were killed by fire from Israeli ships and helicopters in a police station north of Gaza. It subsequently turned out that the ideological training of the future suicide bomber was conducted by his own mother, Maryam Muhammad Yusif Farhat, now better known as

Umm Nidal Maryam Mohammad Yousif Farhat (), or Mariam Farahat (1949 – 17 March 2013), more commonly known as Umm Nidal () was a Palestinian activist popularly known by Palestinians as the "Mother of Martyrs" for her support for her sons' involvement in a ...

. On the eve of the terrorist attack, she filmed a video with Muhammad in which she blessed his future actions and which was made public after his death. In addition to Muhammad Farhat, two more sons of Umm-Nidal died in the process of preparing hostile actions against Israel - the eldest son, Nidal, during the preparation of a terrorist attack (he and five other Hamas members worked on the creation of an unmanned aerial vehicle filled with explosives), and third son Ruad in a car carrying a Qassam missile and fired upon by Israeli soldiers. During the first intifada, Farhat hid one of the commanders of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Imad Akel, in her home for 14 months. Muhammad Farhat, who witnessed Akel and his associates preparing actions against the Israelis, became his student and member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades at the age of seven. Later in an interview, Maryam Farhat talked about how she fostered a love of jihad in her sons, who fully joined the military wing of Hamas.Michael P. Arena, Bruce A. Arrigo. The Terrorist Identity: Explaining the Terrorist Threat. — New York University Press, 2006. — P. 148. —
ISBN 978-0-8147-0715-9. In September 2002, the IDF destroyed the Farhat family's home in Gaza as part of efforts to prevent future terrorist attacks. In 2006, Umm Nidal, after the death of Ruad, who declared that she wanted to see her other four sons as martyrs, was elected as a deputy of the

Palestinian Legislative Council The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Palestinian National Authority, Palestinian Authority, elected by the Palestinians, Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories of the Wes ...

from Hamas. During Operation Iron Swords, more than 20 years after the attack, the Israeli military killed in Gaza two senior Hamas militants it stated were involved in planning the attack in Atzmona. Mohammed Dababish was killed on November 13, 2023, and

Wissam Farhat Wissam Abu Hussein Farhat (; 1974 – December 2, 2023) was a Head of Hamas's Shejaiya Battalion. He was the mastermind behind various attacks such as the Atzmona Attack, the Nahal Oz attack and more. Biography Wissam Farhat was born in 1974 ...

was killed on December 3, 2023.IDF eliminates Hamas commander integral in October 7 attack, 2014 war
/ref>

References

{{coord, 31.7887, N, 35.2223, E, source:wikidata, display=title Israeli terrorism victims Deaths by firearm in the Gaza Strip Massacres in 2002 Islamic terrorist incidents in 2002 Israeli casualties in the Second Intifada March 2002 crimes in Asia March 2002 in Asia 21st-century mass murder in the Gaza Strip 2002 in the Gaza Strip 2002 crimes in Palestine Terrorist incidents in Palestine Terrorist incidents in Asia in 2002 2002 mass shootings in Asia Mass shootings in Palestine School shootings in Asia School massacres in Palestine Attacks on schools in 2002 Attacks on schools in the Gaza Strip Spree shootings in Asia Massacres in the Gaza Strip 2002 murders in Asia Hamas attacks

Background

Massacre

Circumstances and further events

See also

References