On August 4, 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber from the militant group Hamas conducted a suicide bombing aboard an Egged bus at the Meron junction in northern Israel near Safed. In addition to the bomber, six Israeli civilians, and three Israeli soldiers were killed. Thirty-eight people were injured.[1][2]
Hamas subsequently publicly claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming it was in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike against a Hamas commander and to express displeasure with a UN-sponsored investigation into the Israeli incursion into the Jenin refugee camp that April.[2]
Saeb Erakat condemned the attack, and Palestinian minister Nabil Shaath claimed that Palestinians were continuing to try to halt attacks on Israel, despite the Israeli actions. The bus attack occurred a week after the Hebrew University bombing, in which a Palestinian attacker affiliated with Hamas killed 9 people.[2]
On 27 August, Israeli authorities arrested 7 Arab-Israelis, all members of the same family, who allegedly assisted the bomber. According to police, the suspects helped store explosives in a nursery school, dressed the bomber as a tourist, and scouted the target.[3]
In 2019, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett signed an order enabling Israel to seize "pay-for-slay" payments from the Palestinian Authority to Arab Israelis convicted on terrorism charges. This order included two prisoners who Israeli claimed assisted the Meron Junction bomber.[1]
