The Cave of the Patriarchs massacre was a terrorist attack that occurred when Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler and member of the far-right Israeli Kach movement, opened fire on unarmed Palestinian Muslims praying inside the Ibrahim Mosque (or Mosque of Abraham) at the Cave of the Patriarchs site in Hebron in the West Bank. It took place on February 25, 1994, during the overlapping religious holidays of Purim and Ramadan. Twenty-nine worshippers were killed and 125 wounded. The attack ended after Goldstein had expended his ammunition, when he was overcome, then beaten to death by survivors.
The attack set off riots and protests throughout the West Bank, and 19 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli Defense Forces within 48 hours of the massacre. Goldstein was denounced "with shocked horror" by Orthodox Judaism, and most in Israel denounced Goldstein as insane. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin condemned the attack, describing Goldstein as a "degenerate murderer", "a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism". He has been object of veneration among Jewish settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron.
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