The Dizengoff Center suicide bombing was a terrorist attack on March 4, 1996, on the eve of the holiday of Purim. It was the fourth suicide bombing in Israel in the span of nine days. [1]
A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up outside Dizengoff Center in downtown Tel Aviv, Israel, killing 13 Israelis and wounding 130, including children in costume in honor of the holiday.[2]Hamas and Islamic Jihad both claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The blast went off just before 4 p.m. outside Dizengoff Center, the largest shopping mall in Tel Aviv. Before detonating the bomb, the bomber had tried to enter the shopping center but an alert security guard stationed at the entrance noticed he looked suspicious and turned him away. He walked toward a group of people near a row of cash machines and then crossed the intersection of King George and Dizengoff streets, laying down in the fourth zebra strip and set off the explosive device, which was strapped to his body.
The victims were Bat-Hen Shahak, 15, of Tel Mond; Hadas Dror, 15, of Tel Mond; Kobi Zaharon, 13, of Tel Aviv; Inbar Atiya, 21, of Ramat-Efal[3]; Dan Tversky, 58, of Tel Aviv; Dana Gutman, 14, of Moshav Mishmeret; Yovav Levy, 13, of Tel Aviv; Leah Mizrahi, 60, of Tel Aviv; Tali Gordon, 24, of Givatayim [4]; Rahel Sela, 82, of Tel Aviv; Sylvia Bernstein, 73, of Hod Hasharon; Gail Belkin, 48, of Herzliya; St.-Sgt. Assaf Wachs, 21, of Holon.