1989 Tel Aviv–Jerusalem bus attack
| Tel Aviv–Jerusalem bus 405 suicide attack | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict | |
Memorial site for the victims | |
Location of the attack | |
| Native name | הפיגוע בקו 405 |
| Location | Near Kiryat Yearim, Israel |
| Coordinates | 31°48′03″N 35°05′40″E / 31.80083°N 35.09444°E |
| Date | 6 July 1989 (UTC+2) |
| Deaths | 16 civilians |
| Injured | 27 civilians |
| Perpetrator | Abd al-Hadi Rafa Ghanim |
| Assailant | Abd al-Hadi Rafa Ghanim |
| Participant | 1 |
The Tel Aviv–Jerusalem bus 405 attack (Hebrew: הפיגוע בקו 405) was an attack that occurred on 6 July 1989, during the First Intifada, and was carried out by Abd al-Hadi Ghanim, a 25-year-old militant of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. On a crowded Egged commuter bus line No. 405 en route from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Ghanim seized the steering wheel of the bus, running it off a steep cliff into a ravine in the area of Qiryat Ye'arim. Sixteen civilians—including two Canadians and one American—died in the attack, and 27 were wounded.
The incident has been described as the first Palestinian suicide attack, despite the survival of the attacker. It had also been described as a "commandeered crash" and an act with "definitional ambiguities", because the attack appeared to have been motivated by personal revenge. Despite this, the act was quickly labelled as terrorism by both sides in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict for political reasons.