October 4, 2003
A suicide bombing kills 21 Jews including four Arabs and injures some 60 others at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, Israel. The beachfront restaurant, co-owned by Jews and Christian Arabs, is known as a symbol of coexistence. Hanadi Jaradat, a 28-year-old Palestinian, detonates her explosive belt in the middle of Maxim, and metal fragments spray around the restaurant. Among the dead are several members from two families, four children, one of them 2 months old. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for the bombing. Jaradat’s attack is the sixth female suicide bombing of the Second Intifada, which begins in 2000. The Israeli army responds by demolishing Jaradat’s home and bombing an Islamic Jihad and Hamas training camp in Syria. Israel holds Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority responsible. Islamic Jihad says the attack is a response to the killing of top officials in the preceding weeks. The terrorist organization also says the bombing exposes the weakness of Israeli security. The restaurant is quickly rebuilt and reopened, with a memorial built nearby (pictured). This attack is one of 23 other suicide bombings that take place in Israel in 2003. During this period, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP, al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades and other militant Palestinian groups share in the planning and execution of these many deadly, politically motivated attacks.