Pi-Glilot stop
The Pi Glilot attack was a terrorist attack on May 23, 2002 , when a Palestinian extremist detonated a bomb at the Pi Glilot fuel depot, Israel's largest fuel depot , in Herzliya in northern Tel Aviv . This could have resulted in thousands of deaths and extensive damage. One expert considered the effect to be comparable to the explosion of an atomic bomb . The attack would have been the most serious in a series of unusually large attacks at the time as part of the Second Intifada . The tank farm did not explode, however, so no one was injured.
Sequence of events
The perpetrator drove a tanker truck , on which he had attached a bomb, to the Pi Glilot fuel depot next to large fuel tanks . Using a mobile phone, he set off a bomb installed on the truck, which exploded. However, the fire did not spread to the fuel tanks and the fire was quickly extinguished.
At the time of the attack, there were more than 80 million liters of fuel and around 3,000 tons of gas in the Pi Glilot. The explosion of the fuel depot could have created a fireball several kilometers in size and a shock wave , which could have killed several thousand people in the densely populated areas around the Pi Glilot. In addition, there would have been extensive material and ecological damage.
No warnings were issued before the terrorist attack, according to the Schin Bet . Israel considered the use of nuclear weapons in response to an attack of this magnitude.
Timely attacks
- On the evening of May 23, 2002, a suicide bomber in Rishon Le Zion killed two Israelis and wounded 40 others when he blew himself up with a nail bomb in a group of elderly chess players .
- On the night of May 24, 2002, a terrorist from the Al-Aqsa Brigades attempted to blow up a nightclub. Since he was spotted by a security officer, he detonated the bomb too far away, injuring five people.
- Two weeks earlier, 15 people died in a suicide bombing in a pool hall in Rishon Le Zion, and 60 others were injured.
- Three weeks before the attack on Pi Glilot, the Israeli military uncovered a plan during an operation in the West Bank to destroy the twin towers of the 50- story Azrieli Center in Tel Aviv with a ton of explosives. Even that could have resulted in thousands of deaths.
- Almost every day before, there were further attempted attacks that were discovered by security personnel or Israeli citizens.
swell
- allbusiness.com: Bomb Blast at Fuel Depot Could Have Killed Thousands (May 24, 2002, accessed February 11, 2008)
- Letter from Yehuda Lancry to the United Nations (May 24, 2002, accessed February 11, 2008)
- focus.de: Model September 11 (24th calendar week 2002, accessed on February 11, 2008)
