| Patt junction bus bombing | |
|---|---|
| Part of theSecond Intifada militancy campaign | |
 Memorial for the attack victims | |
  The attack site | |
| Native name | הפיגוע בקו 32א |
| Location | 31°45′00″N35°11′54″E / 31.75000°N 35.19833°E /31.75000; 35.19833 Jerusalem |
| Date | June 18, 2002; 23 years ago (2002-06-18) c.7:50 am (UTC+2) |
| Target | Eggedbus |
Attack type | Suicide bombing |
| Weapon | Suicide vest |
| Deaths | 19 civilians (+1 bomber) |
| Injured | 74+ civilians |
| Perpetrator |  Hamas claimed responsibility |
| Participant | 1 |
APalestinian suicide bombing on anEggedbus was carried out byHamas inJerusalem on June 18, 2002, killing 20 people (including the bomber) and wounding over 74. 17 of the dead were residents ofGilo.[1]
On the morning of June 18, 2002, at 7:50 am, aPalestiniansuicide bomber fromBethlehem got onto theEgged line 32Abus, which came from theGilo neighborhood and stopped atBeit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem.[2] The bomber boarded the bus and exploded himself in the front. Hisexplosive belt included metal balls forshrapnel in order to maximize casualties.[3]
PalestinianIslamist groupHamas claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack. Thesuicide bomber was identified as Muhammad al-Ghoul, a 22-year-old student atAn-Najah National University inNablus. 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 theEast Jerusalem suburb ofJabel 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]
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The charred remains of the bus were shipped to America and displayed at the biannual Jewish Expo fair in New York at the initiative ofZaka, 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]
