Dolphinarium massacre

Dolphinarium massacre
A memorial with the names of the dead at the site of the bombing on the Tel Aviv seafront.
Location	Tel Aviv, Israel
Target(s)	Dolphinarium nightclubs
Date	June 1 2001 23:30- am – (UTC+2)
Attack type	Suicide attack
Deaths	21
Injured	100+
Perpetrator(s)	Hamas, Hassan Khutari

Al-Aqsa Intifada terrorist attacks

Dolphinarium massacre Sbarro restaurant massacre Ben Yehuda Street bombing Haifa Bus 16 massacre Beit Yisrael massacre Moment cafe massacre Passover massacre Matza restaurant massacre Rishon Lezion massacre Megiddo junction massacre Patt junction massacre French Hill Junction massacre Egged bus 841 massacre Jerusalem bus 20 massacre Tel-Aviv central bus station massacre Haifa bus 37 massacre Jerusalem bus 14A massacre Jerusalem bus 2 massacre Maxim restaurant suicide bombing Jerusalem bus 19 massacre Ashdod Port massacre Beer Sheva massacre Old Central Bus Station massacre

The Dolphinarium massacre was a suicide bombing carried out by the Hamas member Hassan Khutari in a discotheque near the dolphinarium in Tel Aviv, Israel on June 1, 2001 in which 21 Israelis were killed and more than 100 were injured.

The bombing occurred around the time of 23:30. A suicide bomber exploded himself near the club named "Dolphi Disco" (near the "Pacha Club") in which a party was in process. The suicide bomber stood in the entrance to the club among the youth and detonated the explosives.

Five months prior to the bombing, there was a failed bombing attack attempted at the same spot.^[1]

Killed

21 Israeli civilians, mostly teenagers with backgrounds from the former Soviet Union, died in the attack:

Maria Tagiltseva, 14
Yevgeniya Dorfman, 15
Raisa Nemirovskaya, 15
Yulia Sklyanik, 15
Ana Kazachkova, 15
Katherine Kastinyada, 15
Irina Nepomnyashaya, 16
Mariana Medvedenko, 16
Yulia Nalimova, 16
Liana Saakyan, 16
Marina Berkovskaya, 17
Simona Rudina, 17
Alexei Lupalo, 17
Yelena Nalimova, 18
Irina Osadchaya, 18
Ilya Gutman, 19
Sergei Panchenko, 20
Roman Dzhanashvili, 21
Diaz Nurmanov, 21
Jan Bloom, 25
Uri Shachar, 32

Eyewitness accounts

Tomer Revah (age 22): "We came to the "Pacha" with a friend to hang out. Fortunately, we arrived late and when we reached the club's doors we heard a blast and saw body parts. After the blast, we approached the place in order to assist".

Ariel Levi: "I was on my way to a friend on a motorcycle when I heard the blast. I went off the motorcycle immediately and ran to the place. The rescue forces that came to the place were miserable because there was no one to save. Bodies were laid one above another on the sidewalk. I found on the floor a 16 or 17 year-old child the age of my daughter. I found her by accident. Her pupils were dilating and she was covered in blood. I felt a pulse but she wasn't breathing. I immediately tried to resuscitate her from what I learnt in a resuscitation course. I yelled to the medics to come because they gave up because of the sheer number of bodies. I succeeded and an ambulance evacuated her to the hospital while she's breathing with a pulse. I hope she will be all right, I need to visit her and hope she recovers".

Roni Soklicki, responsible for parties in the "Pacha" club, the club adjacent to the bombing site: "Around 23:30, the time when the clubs open for parties, I went out to check last time before the party started. There were dozens of people there waiting for the Russian orientated party. Suddenly I heard a huge blast and I saw a blaze of fire erupting to the sky. It was a heinous picture, people lied on the floor and body parts were thrown everywhere".

Reaction

In Ramallah dozens of Palestinians celebrated in the streets and fired in the air as a sign of happiness. President George W. Bush demanded that Arafat condemn the terrorist act.^[2]

While Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat later did condemn the act, documents seized by the IDF during Operation Defensive Shield revealed that the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs granted a sum of $2,000 to the father of the bomber about two weeks later.[1]