Attack — Beer-Sheva, two buses

Beer-Sheva, capital of the Negev, had until then been relatively spared by the attacks of the second Intifada, its distance from the West Bank keeping it away from the usual routes. On August 31, 2004, two suicide bombers from Hebron boarded two buses traveling a short distance apart, near city hall, and detonated their charges almost simultaneously. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack and presented it as a reprisal for the elimination of two of its leaders the previous spring. It was the first suicide attack carried out in Israel in more than five months, and it came at a time when the government was preparing the withdrawal from Gaza.