Beit Lid suicide bombing | |
---|---|
Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict | |
Native name | הפיגוע בצומת בית ליד |
Location | Beit Lid Junction, Israel |
Coordinates | 32°19′25″N34°54′14″E / 32.32361°N 34.90389°E |
Date | January 22, 1995 c. 9:30 am (UTC+2) |
Attack type | Suicide attack |
Weapons | Suicide belts |
Deaths | 20 Israeli soldiers and one civilian (+2 suicide bombers) |
Injured | 69 Israelis, mostly soldiers |
Perpetrator | Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility |
Assailants | Anwar Soukar & Salah Shaaker |
No. of participants | 2 |
The Beit Lid suicide bombing, (also named Beit Lid massacre [1] [2] [3] [4] ) was a double suicide attack by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad against Israeli soldiers at the Beit Lid Junction on January 22, 1995. 21 soldiers and one civilian were killed. It was the first suicide attack by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
In 1994, Hani Abed, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative, brokered an alliance between Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. (Hani was later assassinated by Israel). As part of the alliance, Hamas's chief bombmaker, Yahya Ayyash, built the three bombs used by Islamic Jihad for the Beit Lid suicide attack. Each was made using plumber's pipe (one foot long and eight inches (203 mm) wide) and five kilograms of military-grade TNT, surrounded by nails. [5]
The Beit Lid junction is a well-known waypoint towards Netanya. Strategically, it is an important crossroads between Tel Aviv and Haifa located on Highway 4. "On Sunday mornings, Beit Lid was swamped with thousands of young soldiers and aging reservists heading back to military duty from weekend leaves". [5] Ashmoret Prison is located in the southwest corner of the Beit Lid junction. At the time of the bombing, Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas, was being held there. [5]
On 22 January 1995, at approximately 9:30 am, a Palestinian suicide bomber, disguised as an Israeli soldier, approached the bus stop at the Beit Lid junction in central Israel. The bus stop was full of Israeli soldiers who were on their way to their bases after their weekend vacation. The suicide bomber walked into the crowd and detonated the hidden explosives belt he was wearing. About three minutes later a second suicide bomber exploded at the same spot, killing and injuring people wounded in the first explosion, as well as bystanders who had rushed to the scene to assist the victims of the first explosion.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin toured the bombing site the next day, walking within yards of a kit bag containing a third bomb. Shaaker had left it there for a third suicide bomber, Shahdi Abed al-Rahim, who never made it to the junction. al-Rahim was to have used the bomb to kill Rabin and the Shabak agents accompanying him. The bomb was later recovered, and provided investigators with more evidence implicating Ayyash. [6]
Note: This compilation includes only those attacks that resulted in casualties. Attacks which did not kill or wound are not included.
Note: The death toll quoted here is just the sum of the listings. There may be many omissions from the list. The human rights organisation B'Tselem has complied statistics of about 600 deaths during 2003 in the occupied territories alone.
Yahya Abd-al-Latif Ayyash was the chief bombmaker of Hamas and the leader of the West Bank battalion of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. In that capacity, he earned the nickname the Engineer. Ayyash is credited with advancing the technique of suicide bombing in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The bombings he orchestrated caused the deaths of approximately 90 Israelis, many of them civilians. He was assassinated by Shin Bet on 5 January 1996.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2004.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2005.
Palestinian political violence refers to actions carried out by Palestinians with the intent to achieve political objectives that can involve the use of force, some of which are considered acts of terror, and often done in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Common objectives of political violence by Palestinian nationalists include self-determination in and sovereignty over Palestine, or the "liberation of Palestine" and recognition of a Palestinian state, either in place of both Israel and the Palestinian territories, or solely in the Palestinian territories. Some perpetrators of these acts support the dismantling of the State of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Arab state. More limited goals include the release of Palestinian prisoners or the Palestinian right of return. Other motivations include personal grievances, trauma or revenge.
The Mehola Junction bombing was the first suicide car bomb attack carried out by Palestinian militants and took place on 16 April 1993.
The Afula bus suicide bombing was carried out on 6 April 1994, at a bus stop next to an Egged bus in the center of Afula, Israel. Eight Israeli civilians were killed in the attack and 55 were injured. Hamas and PIJ claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Kfar Darom bus attack was a 1995 suicide attack on an Israeli bus carrying civilians and soldiers to Kfar Darom, an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. The attack killed seven Israeli soldiers and one American civilian. The Shaqaqi faction of the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. A United States Federal district judge ruled that the Iranian Government had provided financial aid to the group that carried out the attack and were therefore responsible for the murder of the U.S. citizen. The court ordered the Government of Iran to pay the victim's family $247.5 million in damages.
Events in the year 2003 in Israel.
Events in the year 2002 in Israel.
Events in the year 2001 in Israel.
Events in the year 1995 in Israel.
Events in the year 1994 in Israel.
The Netzarim Junction bicycle bombing was a suicide bombing which occurred on November 11, 1994, at an Israeli Army checkpoint located in the Gaza Strip. In the attack, three Israeli soldiers were killed and six Israeli soldiers and six Palestinian Arab were wounded.
The Megiddo Junction bus bombing was the suicide bombing of an Egged bus at Megiddo Junction in northern Israel on June 5, 2002. 17 people were killed and 43 wounded, the majority of them IDF soldiers.
Events in the year 2001 in the Palestinian territories.
Events in the year 2003 in the Palestinian territories.
The 2002 Tel Aviv outdoor mall bombing was a terrorist attack which occurred on 25 January 2002 in which a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in Tel Aviv, Israel, injuring at least 24 civilians.