On 31 July the Hebrew University held a ceremony and vigil to remember the 9 victims and mark 23 years to the devastating terror attack
The Hebrew University bombing was carried out by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on 31 July 2002 in a cafeteria at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The attack killed 9 people, and injured about 100.
The bombing took place during the summer examination period, while summer Hebrew-language courses were being taught. At lunchtime, the attacker placed the bomb on a table in the middle of the crowded cafeteria in the Frank Sinatra International Student Center on the university’s Mount Scopus campus. He covered it with a newspaper and sprinkled perfume on top to disguise the smell of the explosive. After walking away, he detonated the bomb with a cell phone.[9] In the minutes after the explosion, dazed, blood-spattered students emerged from the building; the air smelled of smoke and burnt flesh.
Six women and three men were killed in the attack. Seven died immediately and two died of their wounds in the following weeks. About 100 people were injured in the attack. The wounded included Israelis, Arabs, four Americans and three South Koreans.
It was carried out by an East Jerusalem-based Hamas cell whose members are serving multiple life sentences in Israeli prisons for that attack and others. The attack, which sparked a celebration in Gaza City, was condemned by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and several countries.
In February 2015, a United States jury in the Federal District Court of Manhattan found the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization liable for having supported and helped to fund terror attacks in the 2000s and they were ordered to pay damages in the amount of $218.5 million to victims of said attacks.
The site of the bombing, with a memorial to the victims in the foreground