Tel Aviv bus 5 massacre

Dizengoff Street bus bombing
The attack site Show map of Tel Aviv The attack site Show map of Israel
Location	Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv, Israel
Coordinates	32°4′44.31″N 34°46′26.26″E / 32.0789750°N 34.7739611°E / 32.0789750; 34.7739611
Date	October 19, 1994 9:00 am (GMT+2)
Attack type	Suicide attack
Deaths	22 civilians (+ 1 suicide bomber)
Non-fatal injuries	50
Perpetrators	One suicide bomber (Saleh Abdel Rahim al-Souwi). Hamas claimed responsibility.

The Dizengoff Street bus bombing was a Hamas suicide attack on a passenger bus driving down Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv in 1994. At that time, it was the deadliest suicide bombing in Israeli history, and the first successful attack in Tel Aviv. Twenty-two civilians were killed and 50 were injured. The attack was planned by Hamas chief Yahya Ayyash, on the eve of the signing of the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace.

Yahya Ayyash was disappointed that the previous attack he orchestrated, the Hadera central station suicide bombing, had killed six Israelis. The bomb used in that attack had been small and made of acetone peroxide, a relatively weak explosive. For the attack on bus five, Ayyash constructed a bomb using an Egyptian land mine packed with twenty kilograms of military-strength TNT, surrounded by nails and screws. TNT is not readily available in the Palestinian territories, but Hamas had managed to acquire some by smuggling it in or purchasing it from Israeli organized crime. The device "was one of the best ever built by Ayyash."

Qalqilya resident Saleh Abdel Rahim al-Souwi was selected for the attack. Al-Souwi joined Hamas after his older brother Hasin was killed in 1989, in a shootout with Israeli forces. Al-Souwi was wanted by the Israeli Shabak, but was not considered a high priority. The day before the attack, al-Souwi taped a statement saying "It is good to die as a martyr for Allah" and "Sages end up in paradise".

Muatab Mukadi, a member of Ayyash's Samaria battalion (of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades), drove al-Souwi to one of the bus's first stops. al-Souwi chose an aisle seat on the left side of the bus, and placed the bomb (stored in a brown bag) at his feet.