Afula Bus suicide bombing

Infobox terrorist attack
title=Afula Bus suicide bombing


caption=
location=Afula, Israel
target=
date=April 6, 1994
time-begin=12:15 PM
time-end=
timezone=UTC+2
type=Suicide attack
fatalities=9 (including the perpetrator)
injuries=55
perps=Hamas, "Operative": Ra'id Zaqarna

The Afula Bus suicide bombing was a 1994 Hamas suicide bombing against Israel. Hamas launched the attack in retaliation for the Cave of the Patriarchs attack two weeks earlier, in which 29 Palestinian civilians were killed.

Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash rigged a 1987 Opel Ascona with seven gas cylinders, five anti-personal hand grenades, and wrapped the bomb in a rucksack containing 1,100 carpenter nails. Nineteen year old Hamas operative Ra'id Zaqarna, a native of Qabatya, was selected for the mission. [Katz, 103-104]

Zaqarna drove to the intersection of Aful'a 9th street division, and pulled in front of the #348 bus. As a group of Israeli students boarded the bus, Zaqarna detonated the bomb. [Katz, 106]

A few hours after the blast, Hamas issued a communique, "a confession of sorts", stating that the bombing was done by Ra'id Zaqarna, a member of the Abdel el-Rahman Hamadan cell of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. "You turned our Id al-Fitr [the end of Ramadan] into a black day, so we vow to turn your Independence day into Hell". [Katz, 107]

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