On Sunday, May 2, 2004, Hatuel picked up her three oldest daughters from school and drove with them and their 2-year-old sister in the family station wagon towards her husband's workplace in Ashkelon to campaign against Israel's unilateral disengagement plan.[10] Likud party members were voting that day in a legally non-binding, advisory referendum being conducted across Israel and in Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories on Ariel Sharon's disengagement proposal.[11] While traveling in the vicinity of the Kissufim Crossing at 12:40 pm, two armed Palestinian militants, who had prepared an ambush near the highway, opened fire at the car, causing the car to spin off the road.[3][11] The attackers, who were armed with automatic rifles, then approached the vehicle and fired their weapons from close range at Hatuel and her daughters repeatedly.[4][5] The gunmen also opened fire on an Israeli civilian from Ohad in southern Israel traveling in a separate car.[12] He managed to reverse and drive away injured.[10][12] A CNN film crew working near Gush Katif who had come under fire by the militants earlier had attempted to warn and stop Israeli civilian vehicles leaving Gush Katif, among them Hatuel and her four daughters who drove past the armored CNN car.[9]