Passover massacre (2002)

At a glance

Date: 2002-03-27

Location: Park Hotel, Netanya, Israel

Incident type: Shooting/mass violence

Tags: mass violence

What happened

Case facts: Incident type: Shooting/mass violence

On March 27, 2002, a suicide bomber attacked the Park Hotel in Netanya during a Passover seder. Israel's official summary reports 30 people killed and 140 injured, including 20 seriously, with approximately 250 guests present at the time.

The attack is widely cited as a major escalation point during the Second Intifada, intensifying security operations and emergency preparedness focus for high-occupancy civilian venues.

What we still need: a verified timeline of entry, detonation location within the facility, immediate emergency actions, and hospital transport sequence.

Victims and impact

Fatalities: [to be confirmed]

Official reporting describes 30 killed and large numbers wounded. Many victims were civilians gathered for a holiday meal, contributing to profound community impact and long-term trauma among survivors and families.

What we still need: an authoritative list of victim names for inclusion in this dossier and a breakdown of injury severity where available.

Pre-attack indicators

• Attack execution required route planning, venue reconnaissance, and timing to coincide with a crowded holiday gathering.
• Explosive device preparation and delivery implied procurement, assembly, and final approach behaviors with potential points for interdiction.
• Affiliation with an organized militant network increases opportunities for intelligence disruption via communications and associate monitoring.
• What we still need: confirmed case-specific pre-incident warnings, suspicious activity reports, or intelligence leads tied to this specific operation.

Weapons and methods

[details pending]

Detection and prevention

Detection opportunities

• [details pending]

Prevention lessons

• [details pending]

Missed intervention opportunities

• [details pending]

Response and aftermath

Response actions

Immediate life-safety response, scene stabilization, victim services, and investigative coordination (to be specified per case)

After-action findings

Operational lessons, interagency coordination findings, and public-safety recommendations (to be specified per case)

Policy changes

Security/process changes enacted post-incident (to be specified per case)

Sources

Sources: Internal C-STAD dataset and tier pages (no external citations for this case).