Kfar Darom bus attack
Kfar Darom bus attack is located in Northwest Negev region of Israel
Kfar Darom bus attack
The attack site
LocationVicinity of Kfar Darom, Gaza Strip
Coordinates31°24′13″N 34°21′19″E / 31.40361°N 34.35528°E / 31.40361; 34.35528
Date9 April 1995; 29 years ago (1995-04-09)
11:45 am (GMT+2)
Attack type
Suicide attack
Deaths7 Israeli soldiers
1 civilian (+1 attacker)[1]
Injured52[1]
PerpetratorIslamic Jihad[1]
AssailantKhalid Mohammed Khatib

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.[1] The attack killed seven Israeli soldiers and one American civilian.[1] The Shaqaqi faction of the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing.[2] 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.[3] The court ordered the Government of Iran to pay the victim's family $247.5 million in damages.[3]

The attack

On the morning of 9 April 1995, Khaled Mohammed Khatib, a construction worker from the Nuseirat refugee camp, waited on the main highway running from Ashkelon to the settlements in the Gaza Strip. At 11:45 am, he rammed Egged bus 36 carrying more than 60 Israeli soldiers and civilian passengers to the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom.[1] At the moment he rammed the bus, he flipped a trigger switch in the steering column, detonating a bomb in his car.[4] Seven Israeli soldiers and one American civilian (named Alisa Flatow) were killed and 52 passengers were wounded.[1]

Subsequent attack

Two hours later, Imad Abu Amouna used a suicide car-bomb against an Israeli police-escorted convoy of cars driving towards the Netzarim settlement.[1] Imad Abu Amouna was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant who had grown tired of waiting for his "martyrdom operation" and instead volunteered with Hamas. Nobody was killed, but thirty soldiers were wounded. The bomb used by Amouna was designed by Yahya Ayyash.[4]

Lawsuit

The family of the American citizen killed in the attack sued the government of Iran, and in 1998 a Federal district judge ordered the Iranian government to pay $247.5 million in damages to the family.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Fletcher, Elaine Ruth (10 April 1995). "Terror deals a blow to Mideast peace. U.S. student dies after attack on bus". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  2. ^ Strachman, David J.; Steck, James P. (2008). Cases and Materials on Civil Terrorism Law. Lawyers & Judges Publishing Company. ISBN 9781933264462. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  3. ^ a b c James Dao. "Judgment for Terrorism Is $248 Million", The New York Times (12 March 1998).
  4. ^ a b Katz, 184

Further reading

External links

Prominent Palestinian militancy attacks in the 1990s
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