Netzarim Junction bicycle bombing

On Friday, 11 November 1994, a Palestinian cyclist detonated explosives strapped to his body as he rode into an Israeli Army checkpoint at Netzarim Junction, a location in the Gaza Strip near the main junction of the strip's north-south highway and close to the then Israeli settlement of Netzarim. In addition to the bomber, the blast killed three Israeli soldiers, all officers who were on reserve duty at the time. Twelve other people were wounded in the attack: six Israeli servicemen and six Palestinians, the latter group including members of a family who happened to be passing the checkpoint in a car at the time of the explosion.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. A leaflet subsequently distributed by the organization identified the bomber as Hisham Ismail Hamad, a 21-year-old resident of the Sheik Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.

In the aftermath of the attack, Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat condemned the bombing through an aide. The Palestinian police responded with a crackdown, raiding scores of houses and a mosque and arresting more than 100 Islamic militants, in what was described as a tougher policy against Muslim militant groups undertaken as a result of the killing of the three Israeli soldiers.

At the same time, leaders of the Palestinian self-rule authority used the occasion to publicly criticize the continued presence of Netzarim and other Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator, described Netzarim as "a sore point." Yasser Abed Rabbo, another Palestinian official, stated that "the settlements represent a time bomb," and that the issue needed to be resolved soon in order to address underlying security difficulties.

No individual has been reported as charged, tried, or convicted in connection with the bombing beyond the identification of the bomber, who died in the attack, in the Islamic Jihad leaflet. The case is treated here as a documented attack with a claimed perpetrator organization rather than an ongoing prosecution.