2004 Erez Crossing bombing

On the morning of January 14, 2004, at approximately 9:30 am, a female Palestinian suicide bomber approached the pedestrian and cargo terminal at Erez Crossing, the main crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The crossing was a location where Israeli security forces routinely conducted security checks on Palestinian workers before allowing them to enter Israel.

According to the account, the bomber feigned a limp and told security guards that she had a metal plate in her leg that would likely trigger the metal detector alarm. This prompted guards to summon a female soldier to conduct a physical check. While waiting for the soldier to arrive, the bomber was able to move into the inspection hall and detonated an explosive device that had been concealed on her body.

The attack killed three soldiers and one civilian employee of the Erez crossing. The victims were identified as Staff Sergeant Tzur Or, 20, of Rishon Lezion; Corporal Andrei Kegeles, 19, of Nahariya; Gal Shapira, 29, of Ashkelon; and Staff Sergeant Vladimir Trostinsky, 22, of Rehovot. Ten additional people were injured in the attack, including four Palestinians.

Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed joint responsibility for the bombing. A Hamas spokesman identified the bomber as a 22-year-old Palestinian mother of two from Gaza named Reem al-Reyashi. Following the attack, a video recorded before the bombing was released showing al-Reyashi in combat fatigues, holding an automatic rifle with a rocket-propelled grenade visible in the foreground. In the recording, she stated she had dreamed since age 13 of "turning my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists" and said she "always wanted to be the first woman to carry out a martyrdom operation."

Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in comments to the Reuters news agency, described the participation of a woman in a Hamas operation for the first time as marking "a significant evolution."

This dossier is based on a Wikipedia article summarizing contemporaneous reporting; two additional contemporaneous news sources (CNN and The Age) covering the same events on January 14–15, 2004 are also cited but their full text was not available for independent verification of details beyond what is stated in the Wikipedia summary.