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JewishHistoryעברית

LAX El Al ticket-counter shooting

Date
4 July 2002Hebrew date: 24th of Tamuz, 5762
Location
El Al ticket counter, Los Angeles International AirportUnited States
Then part of
United States
Perpetrators
  • Hesham Mohamed Hadayet (Individual)
Killed (estimate)
2[1]People killed besides the attacker. The FBI states that an El Al ticketing agent and a bystander were killed and that the attacker was then killed by an El Al security officer. JTA names the dead as Victoria Hen, 25, a ticket agent, and Yaacov (Jacob) Aminov, 46, a jewelry importer, both Israeli-Americans.
Locality

0.00029% of the Jewish population of El Al ticket counter, Los Angeles International Airport[3]

Country

0.000033% – 0.000038% of the Jewish population of United States (c. 2000)[26]

Worldwide

0.000015% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 2000)[4]

Category
Terror attack
Confidence
High

Summary

On 4 July 2002 Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, an Egyptian immigrant standing in line at the El Al Israeli National Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport, opened fire. He killed ticket agent Victoria Hen and bystander Yaacov Aminov, then was shot and killed by an El Al security officer. The FBI, spelling the attacker Hedayat or Hadayat, concluded that his religious and political beliefs were the primary motive, not personal revenge, and designated the shooting an act of international terrorism. JTA reported that a Los Angeles FBI spokesman said Hadayet had no affiliation with a terrorist organization and that the attack targeted the Israeli government through its airline.

Sources

  1. Terrorism 2002/2005. Federal Bureau of Investigation (2006)
  2. FBI calls Los Angeles attacker lone terrorist. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (2003)
  3. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2010. Berman Institute, North American Jewish Data Bank (2010)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 13,575,000[4]c. 2000
  • United States: 5,200,000 – 6,002,000[26]c. 2000Pocket demographics lists NJPS 2000–01 at 5,200,000, American Jewish Identity Survey 2001 at 5,340,000, and Survey of Heritage and Religious Identification 2001–02 at 6,002,000. Different “who is a Jew” definitions drive the spread.
  • El Al ticket counter, Los Angeles International Airport: 684,950[3]Core Jews in the Los Angeles metropolitan area on 1 January 2010, eight years after the airport shooting. The figure covers Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and excludes 5,000 part-time residents.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
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  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
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  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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