TheBeersheba bus bombings were twoPalestinian suicide attacks carried out nearly simultaneously aboard commuter buses inBeersheba,Israel, on August 31, 2004. Sixteen people were killed[1] and more than 100 were injured.Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks.[2]
Background
The previous major attack on Be'er sheva was the 19 October 1998 grenade attack on the Central bus station, where 64[3] people were wounded when a Palestinian from Hebron[4] threw two grenades at the bus station.
In 2004, the year in which the attack was carried out, the second intifada was declining, and then the tensions escalated in March 2004, with the assassination of the leader ofHamasAhmed Yassin. A month later, in April, Yassin's successorAbdel Aziz al-Rantissi was assassinated. After those two assassinations Israel had the quietest four months since the outbreak of the Second Intifada, which came to an end when the Beersheba bus bombings were carried out.
The attacks
At time of the attacks, the "Metrodan Beersheba"public buses (lines 6 and 12) were packed with Israeli civilians and were traveling along the main street of Beersheba, Rager Boulevard, near the City hall, at a very crowded place.[5] At 14:50 pm, the first bomber blew up the explosive device hidden underneath his clothes on bus No. 6 as the bus passed a busy intersection in the center of town. Two minutes later, the second bomber blew himself up while on board bus No. 12 which was located about 100 meters away from the first bus. The force of the explosion, which blew away and mutilated the limbs of many civilians, made it difficult for the authorities to identify the victims. The youngest victim was a 3½ year old boy killed while sitting on his mother's lap.
A video tape released after the attack by Hamas showed the two suicide bombers,Nassem Jabari (22) andAhmad Qawasameh (26), posing with rifles and posters.[6] Hamas distributed leaflets inHebron which stated that the attack was in revenge for the assassination of Hamas leadersAhmed Yassin andAbdel Aziz al-Rantissi by Israel.[7]
The Israeli government accusedSyria[8][9] and "terror command posts in Damascus" of involvement in the attack.[10]
Reactions
Following the bombing, an estimated 20,000 Hamas supporters in Gaza took to the streets to celebrate.[6]
The attack was a shock to the Israeli public, especially because two Palestinian suicide bombers managed to get fromHebron to Beersheba after simply walking across theGreen Linedemarcation lines without difficulty. For this reason, after the attack many Israeli public officials, including Police CommissionerMoshe Karadi made emphasized that a hermetic separation barrier between Israel and theWest Bank was vital to Israel's security. The southern part of theIsraeli West Bank barrier was completed only after the attack.[12]
On September 26, 2004,Izz El-Deen Sheikh Khalil, a senior member ofHamas' military wing, was killed in a car bombing in the al-Zahera district of southernDamascus,Syria. The killing was blamed on Israeli agents. Officially, the Israeli government refused to claim responsibility, but unnamed Israeli sources unofficially acknowledged that Israel had assassinated Khalil as a response to the Beersheba bus bombings.[10]
On February 11, 2026, the IDF announced that it killed Basel Himouni, a Hamas fighter fromHebron who was accused of dispatching the suicide bombers to Beersheba, in an airstrike in Gaza on February 4. Himouni had been arrested in October 2004 but was released in theGilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011.[13]
