Mehola Junction bombing
1993 Palestinian suicide car bomb attack in the West Bank
32°22′15″N 35°30′29″E / 32.37083°N 35.50806°E / 32.37083; 35.50806c. 1:00 am (UTC+2)
Attack type
The Mehola Junction bombing (also known as the Beit El bombing) was the first suicide car bomb attack carried out by Palestinian militants and took place on 16 April 1993.[1]
Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash rigged a Volkswagen Transporter using three large propane tanks and explosives collected from grenades and other ordnance. The bomb was connected to a detonator switch in the driver's controls.[2]
Hamas operative Saher Tamam al-Nabulsi drove the car to Mehola Junction, a rest area on the Jordan Valley Highway in the West Bank. Just after 1:00 am, the car exploded between two buses, one civilian and one military.[3][4] The blast killed al-Nabulsi and Marwan Ghani, a Palestinian from the nearby village of Bardala who worked in a snack bar in Mehola.[3][5] Ghani's brother and eight Israeli soldiers were slightly injured.[3][5]
An investigation conducted after the attack revealed that several weeks before the attack, on March 15, 1993, the terrorist ran over and killed Avish Yaakov Barakha, a resident of Har Brakha, and Ofer Cohen. It was also revealed that the terrorist wanted to carry out the attack within the Green Line territories, but IDF checkpoints prevented him from reaching there.[6][7]
References
- ^ Matthew Levitt and Dennis Ross (2007). Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad (Illustrated ed.). Yale University Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN 9780300122589.
- ^ Katz (2002), pg. 74
- ^ a b c "Suicide car bomb kills 2 near West Bank restaurant". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Associated Press. 17 April 1993.
- ^ Dzikansky, Mordecai (10 October 2011). Terrorist Suicide Bombings: Attack Interdiction, Mitigation, and Response. CRC Press. ISBN 9781439871317. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
- ^ a b Jerusalem Post, 18 April 1993, pg. 1.
- ^ "מתבל דרס למוות שני ישראלים שחיכו לטרמפ".
- ^ Haaretz, April 18, 1993
- Katz, Samuel (2002). The Hunt for the Engineer. Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-749-1.
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Prominent terrorist attacks against Israelis in the history of the Arab–Israeli conflict – the 1990s
- Cairo bus attack (February 4)
- Assassination of Meir Kahane (November 5)
- Ein Netafim ambush (November 26)
- Night of the Pitchforks (February 14)
- Buenos Aires Israeli embassy bombing (March 17)
- Murder of Helena Rapp (May 24)
- Abduction and killing of Nissim Toledano (December 13)
- Mehola Junction bombing (April 16)
- Abduction and killing of Yaron Chen (August 5)
- Afula bus bombing (April 6)
- Hadera bus station bombing (April 13)
- London embassy bombing (July 26)
- Abduction and killing of Nachshon Wachsman (October 14)
- Dizengoff Street bus bombing (October 19)
- Netzarim Junction bicycle bombing (November 11)
- Afula axe attack (November 30)
- Beit Lid bombing (January 22)
- Kfar Darom bus attack (April 9)
- Ramat Gan bus bombing (July 24)
- Jerusalem bus 26 bombing (August 21)
- First Jaffa Road bus bombing (February 25) ‡
- Second Jaffa Road bus bombing (March 3)
- Dizengoff Center bombing (March 4)
- Murder of Yaron and Efrat Ungar (June 9)
- Island of Peace massacre (March 13)
- Café Apropo bombing (March 21)
- Mahane Yehuda bombings (July 30)
- Ben Yehuda Street bombing (September 4)
Attacks launched from the West Bank Attacks launched from the Gaza Strip Attacks launched from Lebanon Attacks launched from Jordan Attacks launched from Egypt 
2000s
‡ indicates the terrorist attack which caused the greatest amount of Israeli casualties during the 1990s
2000s | This terrorism-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
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