Jaffa Street bombing

On Sunday, January 27, 2002, a suicide bombing occurred in the center of Jerusalem on Jaffa Street. The bomber was a 28-year-old Palestinian woman named Wafa Idris, who worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Ramallah. She passed through the Qalandiya checkpoint while driving a Red Crescent ambulance and wearing the organization's uniform, with the explosive device concealed inside the ambulance.

The original plan reportedly called for Idris to pass the explosive device to a designated person once inside Israel. However, she is said to have decided to detonate the device herself, updating an operative referred to as Abu Talal of her decision via cell phone. She carried the bomb in a backpack rather than strapped to her body, approached a shoe store on Jaffa Street, and detonated a 22-pound explosive device at the store's entrance. An 81-year-old Israeli man was killed immediately in the blast, and more than 100 people were injured.

In the immediate aftermath, before the bomber had been identified, Hezbollah's television channel reported that the attacker was a woman named Shahanaz Al Amouri from An-Najah National University in Nablus. Several days later, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the bomber as Wafa Idris.

Relatives said she served on the Am'ari refugee camp's women's committee during the first intifada, assisting with food distribution during curfews and providing support to prisoners' families. She married her first cousin at age sixteen. At 23 she delivered a stillborn baby and was told she would not be able to carry a pregnancy to term; her husband subsequently divorced her, and she returned to live with her mother, a brother, and his family. She then began volunteering with the Red Crescent Society and trained as a medic. A Red Crescent coordinator of Emergency Response Services said Idris volunteered every Friday — the peak period during the intifada due to frequent post-prayer riots — and for two or three consecutive days during weekday unrest.