Hamas conducted a suicide-bomber attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya, Israel, during a Passover seder on this date in 2002, killing thirty civilians and injuring 140. Most of the victims were elderly, including some Holocaust survivors. The attack, the deadliest of the Second Intifadah, was intended to kill in its cradle a new peace initiative by the Saudi Arabian government, which based a normalization of Israeli-Arab relations upon Israel’s withdrawal to its pre-1967 borders. (The initiative was reiterated in 2007 but has been largely ignored by the Israeli government.) Israel responded to the terrorist attack with Operation Defensive Shield, a two-month operation in the West Bank that held Yasser Arafat under siege in his Ramallah compound, killed numerous Hamas operatives, and devastated the town of Jenin. The combined toll of the military operation, along with additional suicide bombings, was 130 Israelis killed (100 noncombatants) and 238 Palestinians killed (at least 83 noncombatants). The conflict ended Yasser Arafat’s relevance as a leader and thereby helped strengthen Hamas.
“It was so pretty, with crisp white tablecloths and flower arrangements, and then everything turned black.” —Maxim Elkrief