This day in history, 2003: The Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel. Hanadi Jaradat, a female Palestinian lawyer and Islamic Jihad member, murdered 21 people, including four children, and wounded dozens at a restaurant jointly owned by Jews and Arabs.
On this day in history, October 4, 2003, Palestinian Islamic Jihad carried out a suicide bombing at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, Israel, murdering 21 people and wounding dozens.
It was Saturday lunchtime. Families had gathered to eat at a seaside restaurant jointly owned by Jews and Christian Arabs, where Jewish and Arab Israelis regularly worked and ate together. Hanadi Jaradat, a female Palestinian lawyer, a suicide bomber from Jenin, detonated an explosive belt among the diners.
The bomb was packed with metal fragments to make it more deadly. The explosion sent shrapnel through the crowded restaurant, destroying its interior and killing children, parents, grandparents and staff.
Two families each lost five members across three generations.
The Zer-Aviv family lost Bruria, her son Bezalel, his wife Keren, and their children: four-year-old Liran and one-year-old Noya. A grandmother, both parents and both children were murdered in the same attack.
The Almog family lost Ze'ev and Ruth, their son Moshe, and their grandchildren: nine-year-old Tomer and eleven-year-old Assaf Staier.
Ten-year-old Oran Almog survived, but the blast left him blind. His father, brother, grandparents and cousin were dead. He lost his sight and five members of his family in one afternoon.
Four Arab employees were also murdered. The terrorists attacked a place where coexistence was part of everyday life, and killed the people who made it possible.
In 2012, the Arab Lawyers Union awarded Jaradat its highest decoration and sent a delegation to present it to her family. A union representative said its lawyers were proud of her actions. The woman responsible for murdering children at lunch was being honored for it.
Maxim was rebuilt and reopened. A memorial near the restaurant remembers those murdered there.