Category: Atrocity, from Wikidata’s class “mass murder”
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
Part of: Israeli–Palestinian conflict Wikidata, ethnic cleansing in Palestine Wikidata, Israeli settler violence Wikidata
Wikidata classes on our event-class list: mass murder (all its classes: Wikidata item)
On 25 February 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli physician and member of the far-right ultra-Zionist Kach movement, carried out a mass shooting of Palestinians who were praying in the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron. Goldstein, dressed in Israeli army uniform, opened fire with an assault rifle and killed 29 people, including children as young as 12, and wounded 125 others. Goldstein was overpowered and beaten to death by survivors.
The atrocity, which occurred during the Jewish holiday of Purim and the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, strained the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords peace process, immediately setting off mass protests by Palestinians throughout the West Bank. During the ensuing clashes, 20 to 26 Palestinians were killed while 120 were injured in confrontations with the Israeli military, and 9 Israeli Jews were also killed.
Goldstein was widely denounced in Israel and by communities in the Jewish diaspora, with many attributing his act to insanity. Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin condemned the attack, describing Goldstein as a "degenerate murderer" and "a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism". Some Jewish settlers in Hebron lauded him as a hero, viewing his attack as a pre-emptive strike and his subsequent death as an act of martyrdom. Following statements in support of Goldstein's actions, the Jewish ultranationalist Kach party was banned and designated a terrorist organization by the Israeli government.
Text retrieved 2026-10-06 from Wikipedia.
Cite this
The link is the Wikipedia revision of October 22, 2026 (revision 1381422615), whose lead is exactly the text shown here.
APA 7
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre. (2026, October 22). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cave_of_the_Patriarchs_massacre&oldid=1381422615
MLA 9
“Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Oct. 2026, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cave_of_the_Patriarchs_massacre&oldid=1381422615.
Chicago (note)
Wikipedia, “Cave of the Patriarchs massacre,” last modified October 22, 2026, 10:51 (UTC), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cave_of_the_Patriarchs_massacre&oldid=1381422615.
Chicago (shortened note)
Wikipedia, “Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.”
Chicago cites well-known reference works such as Wikipedia in notes only, not in the bibliography.
This event on Middle East, 1900–present: https://middleeast.events/event/cave-of-the-patriarchs-massacre
If you use the map’s borders: CShapes 2.0 - historical country borders. Schvitz, G., et al. (2022). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://icr.ethz.ch/data/cshapes/ (modified by middleeast.events); West Bank Areas A/B/C: UN OCHA / HDX "Oslo Agreement" Areas A/B/C (West Bank). Distributed under the legacy HumanitarianResponse.info terms: non-commercial use with credit to UN OCHA. https://data.humdata.org/dataset/state-of-palestine-other-0-0-0-0-0; some corrected border points: GeoNames - CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.geonames.org/
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by Wikipedia contributors, from the article Cave of the Patriarchs massacre. Classes are Wikidata’s labels (CC0). “Part of” is Wikidata’s statement, in its labels (CC0).