Tel Aviv bus 5 suicide bombing

Infobox terrorist attack
title=Tel Aviv bus 5 suicide bombing

---

caption=Memorial to victims of the attack
location=Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv, Israel
target=
date=October 19, 1994
time-begin=9:00 AM
time-end=
timezone=UTC+2
type=Suicide attack
fatalities=22 [Katz (pg. 153) gives the final death toll as 21. However, CNN [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9511/rabin/timeline/mideast_timeline/index.html gives the death toll] as 22, as one woman injured on the scene, died at hospital] (including the perpetrator)
injuries=50
perps=Hamas, "Operative": Saleh Abdel Rahim al-Souwi

Tel Aviv bus 5 suicide bombing was a 1994 Hamas suicide attack against Israel. At the time of the attack, it was the deadliest suicide bombing in Israeli history, and the first successful attack in Tel Aviv. [Katz, 153] Masterminded by Hamas chief bombmaker Yahya Ayyash, the attack was Hamas's response to the signing of the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace.

Background

Hamas chief bombmaker Yahya Ayyash was disappointed that the previous attack he orchestrated, the Hadera central station suicide bombing, had killed only six Israelis. The bomb used in that attack had been small and made of acetone peroxide, a relatively weak explosive. For the attack on bus five, Ayyash constructed a bomb using an Egyptian land mine packed with twenty kilograms of military-strength TNT, surrounded by nails and screws. [Katz, 147] TNT is not readily available in the Palestinian territories, but Hamas had managed to acquire some by smuggling it in or purchasing it from Israeli organized crime. The device "was one of the best ever built by Ayyash". [Katz, 150]

Qilqilya native Saleh Abdel Rahim al-Souwi was selected for the attack. al-Souwi joined Hamas after his older brother Hasin was killed in 1989, in a shootout with Israeli forces. al-Souwi was wanted by the Israeli Shabak, but was not considered a high priority. [Katz 147-148] The day before the attack, al-Souwi taped a statement saying "It is good to die as a martyr for Allah" and "Sages end up in paradise". [Katz, 149]

The attack occurred exactly one week before the scheduled Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace signing. The purpose of the attack was to preempt any positive news generated by the signing.

The attack

Tel Aviv bus number five runs the length of Dizengoff Street, a major avenue in Tel Aviv which has been called the Israeli Fifth Avenue.

Muatab Mukadi, a member of Ayyash's Samaria battalion (of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades), drove al-Souwi to one of the bus's first stops. al-Souwi chose an aisle seat on the left side of the bus, and placed the bomb (stored in a brown bag) at his feet. A wire ran from the bomb up his pants, to a switch in his jacket pocket.

At approximately 9:00 AM, as the bus was slowing down for a stop 100 metres north of Kikar Dizengoff (near the intersection with Reḥov Esther ha-Malkah), al-Souwi detonated the bomb. The powerful explosion lifted the bus off its chassis, the heat melted the fiberglass bus frame. "Limbs were projected like missile [sic] into the seating area of nearby restaurants" Katz, 151]

In the frenzy that followed the explosion, a furious crowd of Israeli demonstrators began to descend on the bomb site, chanting "Death to the Arabs". "Police arrested scores of Arab suspects in and around the blast area, though most were detained to save them from crowds eager to exact Middle Eastern payback - mob style".

Aftermath

The bombing was the first successful suicide attack in Tel Aviv. At the time of the attack, it was the deadliest in Israeli history. However, subsequent attacks have surpassed the bus 5 death toll - the first Jerusalem bus 18 suicide bombing, the Passover suicide bombing, and the Jerusalem bus 2 suicide bombing.

Yitzhak Rabin, then Israel's Prime Minister, who was in the United Kingdom on a state visit, immediately returned to Israel. Ayyash's name and picture were featured in newspapers around the world. To the Palestinians, he became an overnight hero, and T-shirts bearing his image were the fastest selling.

Using DNA technology, Israeli police quickly identified al-Souwi as the perpetrator. The day after the bombing, with his identify confirmed using DNA, al-Souwi's family threw a neighborhood party celebrating his "martyrdom". That afternoon, Shabak agents and two hundred Israel Defense Forces troops arrived at the house, to demolish it. Sappers began planting TNT, and the family was given one hour to get their possessions out of the house. After an hour, the Israelis blew the house up. [Katz, 160]

Notes

References

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