Hadera bus station suicide bombing

The Hadera bus station suicide bombing was a 1994 Hamas suicide attack on a passenger bus departing from the central bus station in Hadera for Tel Aviv, Israel. As a result, five civilians were killed and 30 injured. The attack came exactly one week after another Hamas bus suicide bombing attack in Afula. Both attacks were motivated officially by Hamas as retribution for the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre conducted against Muslim worshippers in February by Baruch Goldstein.[1] The attack took place on the Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day.

Hadera central station suicide bombing
Hadera bus station suicide bombing is located in Central Israel
Hadera bus station suicide bombing
The attack site
LocationHadera, Israel
Coordinates32°26′7″N 34°54′49″E / 32.43528°N 34.91361°E / 32.43528; 34.91361
DateApril 13, 1994 (1994-04-13)
c. 9:40 am (GMT+2)
Attack type
Suicide attack
Deaths5 (+1 suicide bomber)
Injured30
PerpetratorsHamas claimed responsibility
AssailantAmar Salah Diab Amarna
No. of participants
1
MotiveRevenge for the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre

Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash built a bomb using two kilograms of home-made acetone peroxide explosive. Twenty-one-year-old Amar Salah Diab Amarna, a native of Ya'bad in the West Bank, was selected for the mission.[2]

On the morning of April 13, 1994, Amarna boarded the 9:30 am bus to Tel Aviv. At 9:40 am, as the bus was pulling out of the station, Amarna placed the bag containing the bomb on the floor of the bus, "where shrapnel could rip through vital arteries in the groin area," and detonated it.[3]

As Israeli rescue workers converged on the scene of the explosion, a second pipe bomb exploded. Hamas later claimed responsibility for the attack.[4]

References

  1. ^ Robert Pape Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, Random House 2005 pp.66-68
  2. ^ Katz, p. 108
  3. ^ Katz, pp. 108–109
  4. ^ "Suicide and Car Bomb Attacks in Israel Since the Declaration of Principles (September 1993)". Archived from the original on 2006-12-01. Retrieved 2007-04-18.

Bibliography