Kfar Darom bus attack

Kfar Darom bus attack
The attack site
Location	Vicinity of Kfar Darom, Gaza Strip
Date	9 April 1995 11:45 am (GMT+2)
Attack type	Suicide attack
Deaths	Seven Israeli soldiers and one civilian (+ 1 suicide bomber)[1]
Non-fatal injuries	52[1]
Perpetrators	Khalid Mohammed Khatib, Islamic Jihad[1]

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 were killed and 52 passengers were wounded.^[1]

Fatalities

Alisa Flatow memorial, Gedera, Israel

The following people died in the attack:^[5]

Staff-Sgt. Yuval Regev, 20, of Holon[6] Staff-Sgt. Meir Scheinwald, 20, of Safed[7] Sgt. Itai Diener, 19, of Rishon Lezion[8] Sgt. Zvi Narbat, 19, of Rishon Lezion[9]

Sgt. Netta Sufrin, 20, of Rishon Lezion[10] Cpl. Tal Nir, 19, of kibbutz Mefalsim[11] Sgt. Avraham Arditi, 19, of Jerusalem[12] Alisa Flatow, 20, of the United States[13]

Alisa Flatow (1975–1995), the American Jewish student from West Orange, New Jersey killed in the attack, attended Brandeis University.^[14] When Flatow succumbed to her wounds, her family donated her organs to save the lives of others.^[15]

Flatow's family sued the government of Iran, and in 1998 a Federal district judge ordered the Iranian government to pay $247.5 million in damages to Flatow's family.^[3] The Alisa M. Flatow Yeshiva High School was named in her honor.^[16] The Alisa Flatow Memorial Scholarship provides funds for students who wish to pursue traditional Jewish studies.^[17]

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 an 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]

See also

• Palestinian political violence

References

1. 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. "Cases and Materials on Civil Terrorism Law". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
3. James Dao. "Judgment for Terrorism Is $248 Million", The New York Times (12 March 1998).
4. Katz, 184
5. "Fatal Terrorist Attacks in Israel since the Declaration of Principles". MFA. 24 September 2000. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
6. "נזכור את כולם". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
7. "נזכור את כולם". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
8. "נזכור את כולם". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
9. "נזכור את כולם". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
10. "נזכור את כולם". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
11. "נזכור את כולם". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
12. "נזכור את כולם". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
13. "אזרחים חללי פעולות איבה - חיפוש לפי שם, אירוע או מקום מגורים - עליסה פלטו ז"ל". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
14. Siemaszko, Corky. "EERIE LINKS BETWEEN 2 N.J. WOMEN", New York Daily News, 26 February 1996. Accessed 19 August 2008. "The New Jersey women killed yesterday in a bus bombing in Jerusalem followed in the tragic footsteps of a former classmate Alisa Flatow. Sara Duker was one year ahead of Flatow at the Frisch Yeshiva High School in Paramus, N.J."
15. Robert Hanley. "Father Says U.S. Victim Loved Israel", The New York Times, 11 April 1995).
16. Lois Goldrich. "Bat Torah headed for Paramus", New Jersey Jewish Standard (2 May 2008). Retrieved on 7 August 2008.
17. Alisa Flatow Memorial Fund home page. Retrieved on 7 August 2008.

• Katz, Samuel (2002). The Hunt for the Engineer. Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-749-1.

External links

• Will my daughter's killers be set free?