Yahya Ayyash#Assassination

Ayyash was born in Rafat on 6 March 1966,{{harvnb|Katz|2002|p=70}} the eldest of three brothers. As a child, he received an award from the Islamic Trust for his talent in memorizing the Quran.{{cite journal |last=Van Tuyll |first=Frederik |title=The emergence of the Islamic trust |journal=Trusts and Trustees |volume=12 |issue=9 |pages=7–9 |year=2009 |doi=10.1093/tandt/ttl009 |quote=The Islamic trust, governed by both the laws of the jurisdiction under which it is written and by Shari'ah law, has become a popular financial and devolution planning vehicle for assets held by Muslims.}}

As a boy, Ayyash's hobby was repairing radios and television sets. After graduating from high school in 1985, he entered Birzeit University in 1987. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1991.{{harvnb|Katz|2002|p=9, 70–71}}

Described as "well educated, ambitious, and soft-spoken," Ayyash hailed from a relatively affluent family. He was married with one child. He planned to study for a master's degree in Jordan, but soon after being denied a student visa, he joined Hamas.{{harvnb|Rosaler|2003|p=36}}

Ayyash built the bombs used in a number of Hamas suicide attacks: the Mehola Junction bombing, the Afula Bus massacre, the Hadera central station massacre, the Tel Aviv bus 5 massacre, the Egged bus 36 bombing, the Ramat Gan bus 20 bombing, and the Jerusalem bus 26 bombing. As part of a strategic alliance between Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ayyash built the bombs used by Islamic Jihad at the Beit Lid massacre.Katz 2002, pg. 77, (Bet El), pp. 106–109 (Afula and Hadera), pg. 147 (#5 bus), pg. 167 (Biet Lid), pg. 191 (#20 bus), pg. 197 (#26 bus).

Unable to obtain TNT and other high explosives in the Palestinian territories, Ayyash used readily available household products such as a combination of acetone and detergent. When combined, these substances form acetone peroxide, an explosive known as "Mother of Satan" for its instability.{{Cite web |last=Eichler |first=Gabriel |title=Inside Israel's Hunt for Arch Terrorists: How Shin Bet Always Gets Its Man |url=https://www.algemeiner.com/2012/11/21/inside-israels-hunt-for-arch-terrorists-how-shin-bet-always-gets-its-man/ |date= 21 November 2012 |access-date=6 August 2022|website=Algemeiner Journal |language=en-US}}

Ayyash came to the attention of Israeli security forces after a failed bombing attempt in Ramat Ef'al. Following a high-speed chase, three would-be Hamas suicide bombers were arrested by police. When police inspected their car, they found it rigged with a bomb—five {{convert|12|kg|adj=on}} gasoline tanks filled to capacity, connected to an acetone peroxide-based detonator. After evacuating the area, sappers used a robot armed with a shotgun to shoot the detonator in the hopes of defusing it but it blew up, causing a massive explosion. Police investigators said that if this had happened in a crowded area, hundreds would have been killed. Under interrogation, the three bombers revealed Ayyash's identity.{{harvnb|Katz|2002|p=5–9}}

After the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Palestinian Authority began to cooperate more closely with the Shin Bet.{{harvnb|Katz|2002|p=248}} The Shin Bet learned that Ayyash often spent the night in the Gaza City home of Osama Hamad, a childhood friend whose uncle, Kamil Hamad, was known to the authorities.{{harvnb|Katz|2002|p=249}}

In October 1995, Kamil Hamad met with Shin Bet operatives, demanding money and Israeli identity cards for himself and his wives. After they threatened to inform on him, he agreed to cooperate. Shin Bet agents gave him a cell phone and told him it was bugged so they could listen in on his conversations.Katz 2002, pp. 251–252. They did not tell him that it also contained 15 grams of RDX explosive.{{harvnb|Katz|2002|p=260}} Hamad gave the phone to his nephew Osama, knowing that Ayyash regularly used Osama's phones.{{harvnb|Katz|2002|p=257}}

At 08:00 on 5 January 1996, Ayyash's father called him and Ayyash answered. Overhead, an Israeli plane picked up their conversation and relayed it to an Israeli command post. When it was confirmed that it was Ayyash on the phone, Shin Bet remotely detonated it, killing him instantly. He was in Beit Lahia at the time.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/06/world/palestinian-believed-to-be-bombing-mastermind-is-killed.html |title=Palestinian Believed to Be Bombing Mastermind Is Killed |work=New York Times |date=January 6, 1996 |first=Serge |last=Schmemann |access-date=26 June 2024 |archive-date=23 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240423195047/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/06/world/palestinian-believed-to-be-bombing-mastermind-is-killed.html |url-status=live }}

Israel did not confirm or deny its role in killing Ayyash, which led to rumors and speculation about the extent of Israeli involvement.

In 2012, former Shin Bet director Carmi Gillon confirmed the story in the documentary The Gatekeepers. Kamil Hamad disappeared and it is rumored that he received US$1 million, a fake passport and a visa to the US.{{Cite news|title = How the phone bomb was set up|url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/how-the-phone-bomb-was-set-up-1323096.html|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140421081912/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/how-the-phone-bomb-was-set-up-1323096.html|url-status = dead|archive-date = 21 April 2014|work= The Independent|access-date = 10 October 2015|date=9 January 1996 |first=Patrick |last=Cockburn}}

Following Ayyash's death, four suicide bombings killed seventy-eight Israelis in February and March 1996. The first of these took place shortly after the end of the 40-day mourning period for Ayyash and the cell that claimed responsibility called itself "Disciples of the martyr Yahya 'Ayyash", stating it was a revenge attack for his assassination. Israeli security services who later interrogated one of the organizers of the attacks said they were carried out by a sub-group of the Qassam Brigades, and that, "the attacks were most probably a direct reaction to the assassination of 'Ayyash [with] no far-reaching political goal."{{harvnb|Gunning|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9-WfAK7HXCYC&dq=ayyash&pg=PA210 210]}}

The Militant, a newsweekly associated with the Socialist Workers Party (United States), reported that "100,000 Palestinians... attended the funeral".{{cite web |url=http://www.themilitant.com/1996/603/603_19.html |title=Gaza: 100,000 Palestinians Protest Assassination |website=The Militant |date=22 January 1996 |first=Candace |last=Wagner |access-date=26 June 2024 |archive-date=30 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130065358/http://www.themilitant.com/1996/603/603_19.html |url-status=live }} Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian National Authority (PA), offered his condolences to Hamas leaders. In a speech soon after the death, Arafat praised Ayyash as a martyr and blamed Israel for his assassination.Rubin 1999, pg. 135.{{Cite news |last1=Greenberg |first1=Joel |title=Arafat Accuses Israel of Killing a Palestinian Bomb-Maker |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/08/world/arafat-accuses-israel-of-killing-a-palestinian-bomb-maker.html |access-date=2023-11-02 |work=The New York Times |date=1996-01-08 |archive-date=2 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231102172415/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/08/world/arafat-accuses-israel-of-killing-a-palestinian-bomb-maker.html |url-status=live }}

In April 2010, Israel's Channel 10 reported that the Palestinian Authority named a street in Ramallah after Ayyash. The future presidential compound of the PA is being built on the street. Only a few weeks earlier, a square in Ramallah was named after the Palestinian militant Dalal Mughrabi who directed the 1978 Coastal Road massacre.{{cite news|title=Israel slams naming of Ramallah street after arch-terrorist|first=Herb|last=Keinon|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|date=8 April 2008|url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=172631|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413170344/http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=172631|archive-date=13 April 2010|access-date=13 April 2010|url-status=live}} PA sources said the PA did not intend to name the street after Ayyash. The Ramallah Municipality stated that the street name had been chosen at the end of the 1990s shortly after Ayyash's death.{{cite web|url=http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/pa_e005.htm|title=The Palestinian Authority still allows and even encourages shaheeds to be turned into role models|date=12 April 2010|publisher=Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center|access-date=12 April 2010|archive-date=11 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511073735/http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/pa_e005.htm|url-status=dead}}

In response, Israel, the United States and Canada condemned the Palestinian Authority.{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian_incitement/Israel_condemns_naming_street_after_terrorist_7_Apr_2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012084319/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-%2BObstacle%2Bto%2BPeace/Palestinian_incitement/Israel_condemns_naming_street_after_terrorist_7_Apr_2010 |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 October 2012 |title=Israel condemns the naming of a street in Ramallah after terrorist Yehiye Ayash |date=7 April 2010 |publisher=Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs |access-date=12 April 2010 }}{{cite web|url=https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2010/4/139894.htm |title=Daily Press Briefing |date=7 April 2010 |publisher=U.S. Department of State |access-date=12 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100412120457/http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2010/4/139894.htm |archive-date=April 12, 2010 }}{{cite news|title=Canada condemns decision to name PA building after terrorist|agency=AFP|newspaper=YnetNews|date=9 April 2008|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3873490,00.html|access-date=26 June 2024|archive-date=18 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231218213353/https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3873490,00.html|url-status=live}} The Israeli Prime Minister's Office called it an "outrageous glorification of terrorism by the Palestinian Authority" while a U.S. State Department spokesperson stated "we also strongly condemn the glorification of terrorists. Honoring terrorists who have murdered innocent civilians either by official statements or by the dedication of public places hurts peace efforts and must end."

The PA had previously named streets in Jenin and Beit Lahia as well as square in Jericho in honor of Ayyash.{{cite web|url=http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=718|title=Abbas' PA Again Honors Terrorist Who Murdered Israelis|date=14 July 2008|publisher=Zionist Organization of America|access-date=12 April 2010|archive-date=5 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605110242/http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=718|url-status=dead}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|title=Hamas in politics: democracy, religion, violence|first1=Jeroen|last1=Gunning|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-231-70044-3}}
• {{cite book |author-link= |last=Katz |first=Samuel |title=The Hunt for the Engineer |publisher=Lyons Press |year=2002 |isbn=1-58574-749-1 }}
• {{Cite book|title=Hamas: Palestinian Terrorists|first=Maxine |last=Rosaler|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8239-3820-9}}
• {{cite book|title=The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State-Building|first=Barry|last=Rubin|year=1999|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=0-674-00071-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/transformationof00rubi}}

{{Hamas}}

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Category:Suicide bombing in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

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