2002 Mahane Yehuda Market bombing

On Friday, 12 April 2002, shortly after 4:00 pm, a suicide bombing occurred at a bus stop at the entrance to the Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem's main fruit and vegetable market. Six civilians were killed and 104 people were injured, many of them teenagers and tourists. The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to the Wikipedia account of the incident, the site was chosen to cause the maximum number of casualties. The bomber, identified as Andalib Suleiman, a 17-year-old Palestinian female, first attempted to enter the market itself but found security too tight to proceed. She then moved to Jaffa Road and attempted to board a bus. When she was prevented from boarding, she detonated the explosive device, which had been packed with nails to inflict maximum harm on those nearby. The bus was reported to have been torn apart by the force of the blast.

Suleiman was initially misidentified in the aftermath as a different individual, Nidal Daraghmeh from Jenin, before the correct identification was established.

A Palestinian man from Hebron, Muataz Muhammed Abdallah Himouni, aged 21, was arrested on 6 May 2002. According to the source material, he claimed credit for planning the attack, for supplying the bomber with the explosives used, and for directing her to detonate the device in a crowd at the Mahane Yehuda market or on nearby Jaffa Road.

The bombing had a diplomatic impact at the time: a scheduled meeting between then–U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat was cancelled as a result of the attack.

This entry is drawn from a Wikipedia summary of the events; the summary references contemporaneous news coverage of the attack from outlets including The Guardian and CNN, which are included here as corroborating references but were not independently reviewed for additional factual detail beyond what is stated in the primary source text used for this dossier.