The Dolphinarium massacre occurred exactly 20 years ago on June 1, 2001, when Saeed Hotari, a terrorist affiliated with Hamas, blew himself up in a suicide bombing outside the Tel Aviv nightclub. 

Suicide bomber Hotari was standing in line on a Friday night in front of the Dolphinarium night club in Tel Aviv, when the area was mostly packed with young olim from Russia waiting to enter the club.

At 23:38, Hotari detonated his explosive device.

Twenty-one people were killed in the attack, including one soldier and 20 civilians, most of whom were teenage girls.

The Foreign Ministry listed the names of the 21 victims as follows:

Jan Bloom, 25, of Ramat Gan (d. June 3)

Marina Berkovizki, 17, of Tel Aviv

Roman Dezanshvili, 21, of Bat Yam

Yevgenia Haya Dorfman, 15, of Bat Yam (d. June 19)

Ilya Gutman, 19, of Bat Yam

Anya Kazachkov, 16, of Holon

Katherine Kastaniyada-Talkir, 15, of Ramat Gan

Aleksei Lupalu, 16, of the Ukraine

Mariana Medvedenko, 16, of Tel Aviv

Irena Nepomneschi, 16, of Bat Yam

Yelena Nelimov, 18, of Tel Aviv

Yulia Nelimov, 16, of Tel Aviv

Raisa Nimrovsky, 15, of Netanya

Pvt. Diez (Dani) Normanov, 21, of Tel Aviv

Sergei Panchenko, 20, Ukraine (d. June 2)

Simona Rodin, 18, of Holon

Ori Shahar, 32, of Ramat Gan

Liana Sakiyan, 16, of Tel Aviv

Yael-Yulia Sklianik, 15, of Holon (d. June 2)

Maria Tagilchev, 14, of Netanya

Irena Usdachi, 18, of Holon


The attack took place as part of the Second Intifada.

Last year, EU Ambassador to Israel Emanuele Giaufret visited the Dolphinarium memorial to pay tribute to the victims of the 2001 Dolphinarium discotheque massacre, alongside a survivor of the attack.

Aaron Reich contributed to this report.