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{{Short description|1994 Palestinian terrorist attack in Israel}}

{{Infobox terrorist attack
|title=Afula bus suicide bombing
|image=
|caption=
|map=<div style="width:250px; float:none; clear:none;"><div style="position: relative; padding: 0px; width:250px">[[File:Israel outline jezreel.png|250px]]
<br /><div style="position: absolute; z-index: 2; top: 46.4%; left: 64%; height: 0; width: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">
<div style="position: relative; text-align: center; left: -4px; top: -4px; width: 8px; font-size: 8px; z-index:100;">[[File:Red pog.svg|7px]]</div><div style="font-size: 90%; line-height: 110%; position: relative; top: -1.5em; width: 6em; left: 0.5em; text-align: left;"><span style="padding: 1px;">'''The attack site'''</span></div></div></div></div>
|coordinates = {{coord|32|36|43.38|N|35|17|16.88|E|region:IL|display=inline}}
|location=[[Afula]], [[Israel]]
|target=
|date=April 6, 1994<br>12:15 pm ([[Greenwich Mean Time|GMT]]+2)
|time-begin=
|time-end=
|timezone=
|type=[[Suicide attack]]
|fatalities=8 Israeli civilians (+ 1 bomber)
|injuries=55
|perps=[[Hamas]] claimed responsibility
}}
The '''Afula bus suicide bombing''' was the [[suicide bombing]] attack that was carried out on April 6, 1994, at a bus stop next to an [[Egged (company)|Egged]] bus in the center of [[Afula]], [[Israel]]. Eight Israeli civilians were killed in the attack and 55 additional people were injured. [[Hamas]] claimed responsibility for the attack, as did [[Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine|Islamic Jihad]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/04/07/8-killed-40-injured-in-car-bomb-blast-at-israeli-bus-stop/6feb4aef-1e8f-4d32-bfe5-79bf5d468760/|title=8 Killed, 40 Injured in Car Bomb Blast at Israeli Bus Stop|last=Hoffman|first=David|date=7 April 1994|website=washingtonpost.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127200207/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/04/07/8-killed-40-injured-in-car-bomb-blast-at-israeli-bus-stop/6feb4aef-1e8f-4d32-bfe5-79bf5d468760/ |archive-date=2019-11-27 |access-date=}}</ref>

The Afula bus suicide bombing was the first suicide bombing attack to be carried out by [[Palestinian militants]] against Israeli civilians in Israel,{{ref label|first|i}}<ref name=Storkp66>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_CGiot772MSEC_2|quote=suicide bombing baruch goldstein 1994.|title=Erased in a moment: suicide bombing attacks against Israeli civilians|first1=Joe|last1=Stork|last2=Human Rights Watch|author2-link=Human Rights Watch|edition=Illustrated|publisher=Human Rights Watch|year=2002|isbn=978-1-56432-280-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_CGiot772MSEC_2/page/n75 66]}}</ref> and was carried out in retaliation for the [[Cave of the Patriarchs massacre|killing by a settler of 29 Muslims while they were at prayer]] in the Ibrahimi mosque in [[Hebron]] on February 25.<ref name="Pape" />

== Preparations for the attack ==
[[File:Opel Ascona front 20071115.jpg|thumb|right|250px|An [[Opel Ascona#Ascona C|Opel Ascona C]], similar to the 1987 Opel Ascona C used to carry out the attack]]
The Afula bus suicide bombing attack was planned by [[Hamas]] chief bombmaker [[Yahya Ayyash]], who began to plan suicide bombings within Israel in 1992.

Ayyash rigged a 1987 [[Opel Ascona]] with seven gas cylinders, five anti-personnel [[hand grenade]]s, and wrapped the bomb in a rucksack containing 1,100 carpenter [[nail (fastener)|nails]]. A caller to a Western news agency in Jerusalem said the car was carrying 385 pounds of explosives.<ref name=":0" /> The car, which had Israeli license plates that did not belong to it, had been stolen in Tel Aviv on March 23.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=//latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-07-mn-43286-story.html|title=7 Israelis Killed in Suicide Bombing|last=|first=|date=7 April 1994|website=www.latimes.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308163431/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-07-mn-43286-story.html |archive-date=2021-03-08 |access-date=27 November 2019}}</ref>

== The attack ==
[[File:Piguaafula.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The memorial built at the site of the attack in memory of the victims of the attack]]
Around 12:10 pm, during the Holocaust Memorial Day, a Palestinian suicide bomber drove a vehicle full of explosives into the division nine street in downtown Afula. Two nearby schools had just ended classes for the day, and young Jewish students streamed toward the approaching bus for home.<ref name=":1" />

The suicide bomber stopped his vehicle next to an [[Egged (company)|Egged]] commuter bus line number 348 and detonated the explosives device as the bus was boarding passengers at the bus stop, which was crowded with people. Witnesses described a horrible scene. A firefighter who was the first on the scene said that the street was covered with oil, seared metal and nails.<ref name=":1" /> A 23-year-old survivor who had been reading a newspaper about the on-going Oslo peace negotiations saw "a big rolling fire." He ran away, ripping off his burning clothes as he went. An ambulance driver reported that "people were charred, lacking limbs, lacking heads... ." Tree branches were ripped off and windows were shattered at a nearby kindergarten.<ref name=":0" />

Among the mostly Jewish victims were several Arabs, including one of the fatalities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=//www.nytimes.com/1994/04/07/world/arab-car-bomber-kills-8-in-israel-44-are-wounded.html|title=Arab Car Bomber Kills 8 in Israel|last=Haberman|first=Clyde|date=4 April 1994|website=The New York Times|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090424072307/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1994/04/07/world/arab-car-bomber-kills-8-in-israel-44-are-wounded.html? |archive-date=2009-04-24 |access-date=27 November 2019}}</ref>

==The perpetrators==
A few hours after the blast, Hamas issued a communique stating that the bombing was carried out by a 19-year-old Palestinian named Ra'id Zaqarna, who originated from the village of [[Qabatya]] in the [[West Bank]] and who was a member of the Abdel el-Rahman Hamadan militant cell of the [[Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Katz, Samuel |title=The Hunt for the Engineer |publisher=Lyons Press |year=2002 |isbn=1-58574-749-1}}, Katz, 103-104</ref> Zaqarna drove to the intersection of Afula's 9th Brigade (Hativa Tesha) street, and pulled in front of the #348 bus. As a group of Israeli students boarded the bus, Zaqarna detonated the bomb.<ref>Katz, 106</ref> Israeli media reports said that he had previously served time in prison<ref name=":0" /> and was on an Israeli army list of fugitive members of Hamas's extremist armed wing. Police said they found a banner denouncing the Oslo peace process, and a Koran, the Islamic holy book, near the debris of the car.<ref name=":1" />

==Motivation==
Hamas publicly declared that the attack was one of 5 planned to retaliate for the [[Cave of the Patriarchs massacre]] in which the [[Hebron]] settler [[Baruch Goldstein]] machine-gunned 29 Muslims at prayer and wounded a further 125. Hamas, after conducting a second attack on April 13, the [[Hadera bus station suicide bombing]], Hamas desisted from undertaking the other three it had planned, when Israel quickened its schedule for withdrawing its military from the Gaza Strip soon after.<ref name="Pape" >[[Robert Pape]] [https://archive.org/details/dyingtowinstrate00pape/page/66 ''Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,''] [[Random House]] 2005 pp.66-68</ref><ref name=Martinp358>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJ6MeYq_FbkC&q=suicide+bombing+baruch+goldstein+1994&pg=PA358|title=Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues|author=Gus Martin|author-link=C. Augustus Martin|edition=3rd, illustrated|publisher=SAGE|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4129-7059-4|page=358}}</ref>

However, the Hebron attack may have been an excuse, not a reason. Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel,<ref>{{Cite web|url=//www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jps-articles/2538093.pdf|title=Charter of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) of Palestine|last=Maqdsi|first=Muhammad|website=University of California Press|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=27 November 2019}}</ref> opposed the Oslo peace talks, which were underway in Cairo at that time.<ref name=":0" />

==See also==
* [[Palestinian political violence]]
* [[Afula ax attack]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Archive/Speeches/FM+PERES+REACTION+TO+AFULA+ATTACK+-+06-Apr-94.htm FM Peres reaction to Afula attack - 06-Apr-94] – published at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
* [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72236386.html?dids=72236386:72236386&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT Incident at Afula] – published on [[The Washington Post]] on April 7, 1994
* [https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/07/world/arab-car-bomber-kills-8-in-israel-44-are-wounded.html Arab car bomber kills 8 in Israel; 44 are wounded] – published on ''[[The New York Times]]'' on April 7, 1994
* [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/access/99929522.html?dids=99929522:99929522&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT Arafat declines to condemn attack] – published on ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'' on April 7, 1994
* [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=R6sxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CBMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6033,1630794 Us Urges Arafat To Condemn Blast] – published on the [[Milwaukee Sentinel]] on April 7, 1994
* [https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/08/world/israelis-faith-in-peace-is-put-under-strain-by-bombing-and-new-attack.html Israelis' Faith In Peace Is Put Under Strain by Bombing and New Attack] – published on ''[[The New York Times]]'' on April 8, 1994

==Footnotes==
*{{note|bombing|i}}The first suicide car bomb attack took place at the [[Mehola Junction bombing]] in the [[West Bank]] on April 16, 1993. "A year later, on April 6, 1994, Hamas carried out its first successful suicide car bomb attack in Israel proper when a car packed with nearly 400 pounds of explosives detonated beside a bus picking up students in the Israeli town of Afula ..."<ref name=Levittp11>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CG-AjU3rraQC&q=suicide+bombings+first+civilians+israel&pg=PA12|pages=11–12|title=Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad|author=Matthew Levitt and [[Dennis Ross]]|edition=Illustrated|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-300-12258-9}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{Terrorist attacks against Israelis in the 1990s}}
{{Palestinian militancy attacks in the 1990s}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Afula Bus Suicide Bombing}}
[[Category:Explosions in 1994]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 1994]]
[[Category:Hamas suicide bombings of buses]]
[[Category:1994 crimes in Israel]]
[[Category:Car and truck bombings in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict]]
[[Category:Suicide car and truck bombings in Israel]]
[[Category:Islamic terrorist incidents in 1994]]
[[Category:1994 murders in Asia]]
[[Category:1990s murders in Israel]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in Israel in 1994]]
[[Category:Islamic terrorism in Israel]]

Afula bus suicide bombing - Revision history

Bot at 19:26, 1 July 2023