An attack took place on the night of March 7, 2002 at the Otzem Pre-Military Preparatory School in theIsraeli settlement ofAtzmona in theGaza Strip in which five of the seminary students were killed and twenty-three were injured.
Background
March 2002 was the deadliest month of theSecond Intifada, 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 theYeshivat Beit Yisrael bombing that killed 10 Israeli civilians on 2 March, theWadi al-Haramiya sniper attack on 3 March that killed 10 Israelis, and theCafé Moment bombing that killed 11 Israeli civilians on 9 March. After thePassover massacre on 27 March killed 30 people celebrating the Jewish holiday ofPassover, the Israeli government launchedOperation Defensive Shield targeting Palestinian militant capabilities in refugee camps and cities in theWest Bank that had developed after the Israeli withdrawal after theOslo Accords.[1]
Massacre
On March 7, 2002, at around 11:30 p.m., a terrorist from theJebaliya 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”).[2] Having entered a room intended for classes on the study of religious texts, the terrorist opened fire from aKalashnikov assault rifle at students studying in the building and threw severalgrenades. 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, anIsraeli Defense Forces soldier.[3] From the moment the attack began until the militant's death, 10 to 20 minutes has passed,[2] during which time he managed to shoot 9 machine gun magazines and throw 7 grenades.[4]
The attack killed five Israelis and injured 23 people were injured, four seriously.[5] The wounded were evacuated toSoroka Hospital inBeer Sheva.
Circumstances and further events
TheIzz ad-Din al-Qassam organization (the military wing of theHamas movement) took responsibility for the attack.[3] The terrorist was identified as 19-year-old[4] (according to other sources, 17-year-old[6]) Muhammad Fathi Farhat, a native ofGaza.[4]
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.[3]
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 asUmm Nidal. 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.[7] 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[7]), and third son Ruad in a car carrying a Qassam missile and fired upon by Israeli soldiers.[6] 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.[8] 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,[7] was elected as a deputy of thePalestinian Legislative Council from Hamas.[6]
DuringOperation 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, andWissam Farhat was killed on December 3, 2023.[9]
