2008 Jerusalem yeshiva attack

Mercaz HaRav Shooting
File:Merkaz HaRav Shooting (2).jpg A photo from inside Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav after the shooting
Location	Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem, Israel
Date	March 6 2008 8:36 pm – 8:56pm (GMT+2)
Target	Mercaz haRav Yeshiva
Deaths	9 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	10
Perpetrator	Alaa Abu Dhein

The Mercaz HaRav shooting was a terrorist attack that occurred on 6 March 2008, in which a lone gunman shot multiple students at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, a religious school in Jerusalem, Israel. Eight students and the shooter were killed and seven more were wounded. The attack began at 8:36 p.m. local time and ended about twenty minutes later.

The shooting

The attacker, Alaa Abu Dhein, age 20, from the Arab neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber in eastern Jerusalem, who reportedly had worked as a driver at the yeshiva entered the building carrying a box concealing an AK-47 along with several magazine refills, later firing as many as 500-600 bullets. About twenty minutes after he started shooting, the attacker was shot by a part-time student, Yitzhak Dadon, and shortly thereafter confirmed killed at the scene by Captain (Seren) Yitzhak Shapira, an officer in the Paratroopers Brigade on leave at his adjacent home.

Timeline

• 8:36pm - First call received by Magen David Adom operator from yeshiva student inside building requesting emergency services
• 8:37pm - First ambulances dispatched
• 8:41pm - First paramedic on site reports of one wounded
• 8:51pm - 'E.R.A.N.' declared (multiple wounded event)
• 8:57pm - MADA operator reports 'end of shooting' and orders ambulance staff into yeshiva

Perpetrator

The gunman responsible, Alaa Abu Dhein, a resident of Jerusalem, was reportedly a driver working for the seminary. Abu Dhein's family said he was intensely religious in the Muslim faith but not a member of any militant group. His sister, Iman Abu Dhaim, told The Associated Press that he had been transfixed by the bloodshed in Gaza, where 126 Palestinians, at least 58 of them civilians, were killed by Israeli forces from Wednesday through Monday (q.v. Operation Hot Winter). Abu Dhein, like other Arab residents of east Jerusalem who choose not to have Israeli citizenship, carried an Israeli identity card that granted him freedom of movement and travel in Israel. He worked as a driver in Israel.[3][4]

Motives

There is much speculation about the motives of the shooting. The attack seemed to send the message, according to The Guardian, that Israeli attacks on Palestinians would not go unanswered. Another motive may have been related to the fact that the seminary was identified with the spiritual leadership of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank, and especially with Gush Emunim. Jerusalem may have been chosen since there were no attacks in the city during 2007.

Claims of responsibility

Hezbollah television network Al-Manar reported that a group calling itself Galilee Freedom Battalions - the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh has claimed responsibility for the attack, raising the possibility that the shooting was in retaliation for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh. Israel had previously denied responsibility for that assassination.

Hamas praised the attack on Thursday but did not claim responsibility for it. On Friday an anonymous phone call to the Reuters news agency took responsibility on Hamas's behalf. However, Fawzi Barhoum, a senior Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said that no claim was official unless made in a written statement signed by the military wing of Hamas.

Victims

List of victims

Name	Age	From
Neria Cohen	15	Jerusalem
Segev Pniel Avihail	15	Neve Daniel
Avraham David Moses	16	Efrat
Yehonatan Yitzhak Eldar	16	Shilo
Ro'i Roth	18	Elkana
Yohai Lipshitz	18	Jerusalem
Yehonadav Chaim Hirshfeld	19	Kokhav HaShahar
Doron Mehereta	26	Ashdod

Wounded

In addition to those who were shot to death, at least ten other students were wounded, five seriously. The names of wounded victims are not typically released after such attacks.

Reaction

Palestinian

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, stated "We condemn all attacks against civilians, be they Palestinian or Israeli." However, Abbas's English-language response differed from the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has honored the shooter of the eight high school students gunned down this week with the status of Shahid - Holy Islamic Martyr. The official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida prominently placed a picture of the gunman on the front page, with the caption, "The Shahid Alaa Abu D'heim." In a Page One article on the killings, his act is again defined as a "Shahada achieving" action.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated that "This heroic attack in Jerusalem is a normal response to the crimes of the occupier and its murder of civilians".

About 7,000 residents of the Gaza Strip marched in the streets of Jebaliya, firing in the air in celebration, and visited homes of those killed and wounded in the last Israeli incursion. In the southern town of Rafah, residents distributed sweets to moving cars, and militants fired mortars in celebration. Hamas held parades in the Gaza Strip to celebrate the killings.

Israel

Ehud Olmert, Israel's Prime Minister, called the attack "horrible". Olmert also said that the Mercaz Harav yeshiva had produced, "the finest soldiers for many generations; people who have realized the Zionist faith. This yeshiva – which was founded by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook – has educated and nurtured tradition and legacy, as part of Israel's resilience." A spokesman for Olmert said Israel would act after proper investigation and deliberation, and he condemned those, like Hamas, who celebrated the killings with parades in Gaza. “That Hamas calls this a heroic act, and praises it, this exposes them for what they are,” the Olmert spokesman said.

Thousands in Israel mourned the deaths of those killed during the killing, observing Jewish traditions of mourning. The murdered victims were buried on Friday in accordance with Jewish mourning traditions. Hundreds of Orthodox Jews gathered outside the building and chanted "we want revenge" and "death to Arabs."

Yuli Tamir, Israel's Education Minister, who made a condolence visit to the yeshiva two days after the shooting, was forced to leave after when she was verbally attacked by dozens of youths outside building, who called her a "murderer". She said: "This reminded me of the days before (former Prime Minister Yitzhak) Rabin's murder. It's unfortunate that that there is a public which cannot put limits form itself. I only came to pay my respect to the murdered, not to engage in politics." The yeshiva told Ehud Olmert that he was not welcome, saying it wanted to "save him and us the embarrassment."

The Israel Football Association called for a minute's silence prior to the weekend's football matches, though it was marred at Israeli Arab club Bnei Sakhnin, where some supporters booed.

International

• Argentina's Foreign Ministry said: "Argentina's Government expresses our deep concern at the escalation of tensions and violence in the region and condemns the attack [...]" "Argentina urges for the cessation of violence... this way will allow the negotiation process for a fair, global and durable peace"
• Maxime Bernier, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that "Canada condemns this terrorist act in the strongest possible terms. The attack does nothing to advance the Palestinian cause."
• China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang condemned the attack and expressed hope for the lessening of tensions in the Middle East.
• The Presidency of the Council of the European Union issued a statement condemning the attack, and stating that "terrorist acts are unacceptable."
• France's Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner condemned the attack, and called for peace talks to continue despite the attack.
• Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the attack horrified him, and expressed his sympathy to the families.
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia strongly condemned the attack, and expressed its profound condolences to the families.
• Ireland's Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern "strongly condemned the terrorist attack" and urged "all parties to end the spiral of violence."
• Masahiko Kōmura, the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, said that "Japan expresses its condolences to the bereaved families as well as deepest sympathy for the people who were injured. Terrorism cannot be justified for any reason, and any attempt to justify it is unacceptable."
• Jordanian police dismantled a mourning tent erected outside the home of relatives of the shooter.
• Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre condemned the attack and expressed his sympathies to the families.
• The Organization of the Islamic Conference condemned the killings, saying it abhorred violence anywhere in the world.
• Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden and current Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs described the incident as "an unacceptable terrorist attack."
• Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the attack, saying that is was "an attempt to strike a blow at the very heart of the peace process."
• Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband condemned the attack and expressed his hope for a peaceful Middle East.
• The United Nations Security Council failed to agree on a condemnation of the attack because of opposition from Libya.
• President George W. Bush condemned the attack, and expressed his solidarity with the families of the victims and the people of Israel.
• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed her condolences on the attack. She also wrote that "The United States condemns tonight's act of terror and depravity."

See also

• List of Israeli civilian casualties in the Second Intifada
• List of school-related attacks
• List of massacres
• Ma'alot massacre
• Avivim school bus massacre