Terrorism against Israel in 2003

Terrorism against Israel: Pre-2000 - 2000 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004

This page is a partial listing of incidents of terrorism against Israel in 2003.

Note: This compilation includes only casualties of the violence. Attacks which did not result in death or injury are not included.

Total Civilian Death Toll in 2003: 177

MDT stands for Monthly Civilian Death Toll and the number after denotes how many persons were killed by attacks this month.

January (MDT: 26)

January 2: The body of a 72-year-old Israeli was found in the northern Jordan Valley in his burned out car. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the murder.
January 5: 23 people, including eight foreigners, are murdered in two nearly simultaneous suicide bombings in central Tel Aviv. More than 100 others were reported seriously injured. Islamic Jihad and Yasser Arafat's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility. Another arm of Yassar Arafat's movement denied responsibility.
January 12: A 48-year-old man was killed and four people wounded when terrorists infiltrated Moshav Gadish and opened fire. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
January 17: A 34-year-old Israeli was killed when terrorists entered his home near Kiryat Arba, and opened fire. His 5-year-old daughter and two others were wounded. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

February (MDT: 0)

March (MDT: 21)

March 5: 17 killed, about 53 injured in explosion on bus in Haifa.
March 7: A couple from Kiryat Arba, were killed and five wounded by armed terrorists disguised as Jewish worshippers who infiltrated Kiryat Arba, entered their home and murdered them while they were celebrating the Sabbath. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
March 13: David Mordehai, 57, and his one Nahum, 25, were shot while sittin in their car Jerusalem. The father died of his wounds less than a year later. The son remains paralyzed.
March 19: A 51-year-old Israeli was shot dead while driving in his car between Mevo Dotan and Shaked in northern Samaria (in the West Bank). The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility.

April (MDT: 6)

April 15: Gavriel Pedhazur, 50, a resident of Kohav Yair, was beaten to death with rocks by two Arabs in the Ben-Shemen Forest. A woman who was with him was moderately injured in the attack.
April 15: An Israeli was killed and four Israelis were wounded when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire at the Karni industrial zone crossing in the Gaza Strip. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 19: An Islamic Jihad member opened fire at the Shaked industrial zone in the Shomron. Three Israelis were wounded, one seriously.
April 24: A 23-year-old Israeli security guard was killed and 13 were wounded,in a suicide bombing outside the train station in Kfar Sava. Groups related to the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the PFLP claimed joint responsibility for the attack.
April 30: Three Israelis are killed, about 60 injured when two British Muslim suicide bombers blow themselves up at Mike's Place bar on the Tel Aviv coast. Hamas and Fatah claim responsibility. International Solidarity Movement is implicated by association with the suicide bomber.

May (MDT: 14)

May 5: Gideon Lichterman, 27, a resident of Ahiya was killed, his 6-year-old daughter and another are seriously wounded when terrorists fired shots at their vehicle near Shvut Rachel, in Samaria. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 11: A 53-year-old Israeli man was shot in the head and killed by Palestinians in a roadside ambush north of Jerusalem. Both Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 17: Dina Levy, 37, and Gadi Levy, 31, were murdered in a suicide bombing attack.
May 18: Palestinian suicide bomber kills seven, wounds 20 on bus in Jerusalem's French Hill district. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 19: A suicide bomber blows herself up at the entrance to a mall in the northern Israeli town of Afula. Three people are killed and about 75 wounded. The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades both claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 19: A suicide bomber riding a bicycle near a vehicle close to Kfar Darom. Three people are injured.
May 23: Nine persons were wounded in a bomb attack against a passenger bus traveling near the community of Netzarim.
May 25: A shooting attack in the Jordan Valley, north of Beka'ot leaves one wounded.
May 28: Two Israelis were wounded aboard a bus traveling from Jerusalem to Kiryat Arba was hit with gunfire from both sides of the road.

June (MDT: 26)

June 5: The bodies of two Israelis were found near Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem, brutally beaten and stabbed to death.
June 11: 17 people killed and 112 wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself on board a #14A bus in downtown Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility.
June 12: A 51-year-old Israeli was found shot to death in his car in the West Bank. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
June 12: Avner Maimon, 49, of Netanya, was shot to death. Hamas claimed responsibility.
June 13: Two women were shot while traveling between Nahliel and N'vei Tzuf.
June 17: An Israeli 7-year old girl is killed and three of her family members (including her younger sister) wounded when Palestinians, armed with assault rifles, attack the car they were travelling in, on road no. 6, some few hundreds meters far from Qalqiliya. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility.
June 19: An Israeli shopkeeper is killed in Sdei-Trumot (a village in northern Israel), when a Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up inside the shop. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
June 20: Tzvi Goldstein, a 47-year-old Israeli, was killed when his car was fired upon in an ambush by Palestinian terrorists. His parents, American citizens and his wife were wounded. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
June 26: An Israeli phone company employee was killed in a shooting attack by a 15 year old Palestinian in the Israeli Arab town of Baka al-Garbiyeh. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
June 26: A motorist was wounded by gunfire on the Hussan Bypass Road between el-Hader and Beitar Illit in the Gush Etzion area.
June 30: A 46-year-old construction worker from Bulgaria was killed in a shooting attack on a road west of Jenin, while driving a truck. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, in opposition to the declared ceasefire.

July (MDT: 3)

July 2: A security guard was lightly wounded by gunfire along the Israeli West Bank barrier near Kalkilya.
July 7: A 65-year-old Israeli woman was killed in her home in Moshav Kfar Yavetz and three of her grandchildren wounded in a terrorist suicide bombing. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
July 15 A 24-year-old Israeli was stabbed to death while protecting his girlfriend against a Palestinian terrorist armed with a long-bladed knife on Tel Aviv's beach-front promenade. The terrorist, who was shot and apprehended, is a member of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
July 20: A 67-year-old resident of the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev was wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Yemin Moshe area.
June 21: Oleg Shaichat is abucted and killed by Israeli Arabs from a terror cell calling itself "Galilee Liberators" composed of seven Israeli Arabs, from Kfar Kana and Kfar Manda. All members of the terror cell have been killed or captured.

August (MDT: 27)

August 1: 18-year-old Dona Bennet disappeared while traveling to Tiberias. Police indicate they believe her disappearance is a terror related act.
August 3: A 39-year-woman and three of her children where wounded by Palestinian terrorist gunfire.
August 12: A 43-year-old Israeli was murdered and eight others were wounded by a teenaged Palestinian suicide bomber who detonated himself in a Rosh Ha'ayin supermarket.
August 12: One person was killed and three wounded by a teenaged Palestinian suicide bomber who detonated himself at a bus stop outside Ariel.
August 19: 23 killed, 136 wounded by an explosion, caused by a Palestinian suicide bomber, on board a bus in Jerusalem. Among the victims are numerous children. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Hebron, and Hamas claim responsibility for the attack.
August 23: Rachel Weiss, age 70, of Jerusalem, dies of wounds suffered in the August 19 terrorist attack. *August 29: A 25-year old Israeli was killed in a shooting attack while driving northeast of Ramallah. His wife who was seven months pregnant, sustained moderate injuries, and gave birth to a baby girl by Caesarean section. The Fatah al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

September (MDT: 18)

September 9: Nine non-combat soldier were killed and over 30 wound when a suicide bomber exploded in a bus stop near Asaf-Ha-Rofe hospital and the military base of Tzrifin. Hamas claimed responsibility for the murder.
September 9: Seven people were killed and over 50 wounded when a suicide bomber exploded at the Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the murder.
September 26: A 7-month-old baby girl and a 29-year-old man are killed, and both of the baby's parents are wounded, when a Palestinian gunman enters their home in Negohot (in the West Bank) and opens fire, during the family's celebration of the Jewish New Year.

October (MDT: 27)

October 4: The Maxim restaurant massacre. 21 people are killed and 64 wounded when the female suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat explodes in the Jewish-Arab Maxim restaurant in Haifa. Four of the victims were children, including a 2-month-old. The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the suicide-massacre. The terrorist attack came just a day before Yom Kippur.
October 19: Three Israeli soldiers are killed and two more are injured after a roadside ambush near Ein-Yabrud village, south to Ofra on the West Bank.
October 24: Two female soldiers and one male soldier are killed after two terrorists infiltrated into the military court inside Netzarim settlement on the Gaza Strip. Three more soldier were wounded.

November (MDT: 5)

November 18: Two soldiers were killed by a Palestinian gunman in a checkpoint near Bethlehem.
November 19: Four people were injured and one women was killed, when an Arab terrorist, Ahmed Jahid, opened fire on a group of tourist in Rabin border crossing between the Arava (Israel) and Aqaba (Jordan). The terrorist was killed by Israeli security guards and it is believed he was sent by Al-Qaeda.
November 22: Two Israeli civilian security guards were killed in a construction site near Nahal Kidron at the outskirts of Jerusalem. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility.

December (MDT: 4)

December 3: The Israeli security forces captured two terrorists on their way to commit a massacre in Yokne'am school. The two were members of the Palestinian security apparatus and were armed with 10 kg explosive belt. More details: [1], [2].
December 25: 4 Israelis were killed as a 17-years-old suicide bomber blew himself up in a bus station on a main road between Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva. The PFLP claimed responsibility.