Bombers and Bystanders in Suicide Attacks in Israel, 2000 to 2003

Author: Harrison, Mark

Source: Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Volume 29, Number 2, Number 2/March-April 2006 , pp. 187-206(20)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This article analyses the results of interaction between suicide operatives and bystanders in the course of 103 suicide attacks in Israel over a recent 3-year period. It shows that bystanders' intervention tended to reduce the casualties arising by numbers that were both statistically and practically significant. When bystanders intervened, however, this was often at the cost of their own lives. The value of a challenge was particularly large for suicide missions associated with Hamas, but Hamas operations were also less likely to meet a challenge in the first place. These findings, although preliminary, may have implications for counterterrorism. More systematic collection of statistical data relating to suicide incidents would be of benefit.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10576100500496998

Affiliations: 1: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

Publication date: 2006-03-01

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