| Mercaz HaRav Massacre | |
|---|---|
 Memorial for the victims at the entrance to the library at Mercaz HaRav | |
  The attack site | |
| Location | The Mercaz HaRav yeshiva at Kiryat Moshe, West Jerusalem |
| Coordinates | 31°47′16″N 35°11′49″E / 31.78778°N 35.19694°E |
| Date | 6 March 2008 8:36 pm[1] – 8:56 pm (GMT+2) |
Attack type | Mass shooting, massacre, school shooting |
| Weapon | AK-47 |
| Deaths | 8 victims and the assailant[2] |
| Injured | 11[2] |
| Assailant | 1 (Alaa Abu Dheim)[3] |
| Defenders | Yitzhak Dadon and David Shapira |
On 6 March 2008, a lone Palestinian gunman shot multiple students at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, a religious school in West Jerusalem. Eight students and the assailant were killed. Eleven more were wounded, five of them placed in serious to critical condition.[4][5][6]
The attack began at 8:30 p.m. local time and ended sixteen minutes later. The attacker was stopped by long-time Mercaz HaRav student Yitzhak Dadon and off-duty Israel Defense Forces Captain David Shapira, who killed the perpetrator with their personal firearms.[7]
The attack itself was praised by Hamas and, according to a subsequent poll, was supported by 84 percent of the Palestinian population, the highest result showing support for violence in 15 years, which the pollster concluded was the result of recent actions by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank.[8][9] It was condemned in official statements by various countries around the world.
- ^ "Twenty minutes of fire until terrorist killed" (in Hebrew). Nana 10. Archived from the original on 13 March 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2008.
- ^ a b "Mercaz Harav hit by worst terror attack since April 2006". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2008.
- ^ "Terrorist was a driver for the Yeshiva". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 7 March 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Eight killed at Jerusalem school Archived 9 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine", BBC News, 6 March 2008
- ^ "Terror Attack At Jerusalem Seminary – Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva"; 8 Dead Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, NationalTerrorAlert.com, 6 March 2008.
- ^ Jerusalem seminary attacked Archived 8 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine, UPI.com, 6 March 2008.
- ^ One year on, horror of yeshiva terror attack still fresh Archived 17 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine Haaretz, 24 February 2009
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
nyt20080319was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Poll: 84% of Palestinians back yeshiva attack". The Jerusalem Post. 19 March 2008. Retrieved 18 March 2011.