Tzrifin bus stop attack

On the evening of 9 September 2003, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device inside a hitchhiking station at the Jaffa Gate entrance of Camp Tzrifin, a military base in central Israel. Dozens of soldiers and civilians were waiting at the stop at the time of the attack. Nine soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces were killed and more than 15 people were injured.

The steel structure of the hitchhiking station absorbed part of the force of the explosion, with metal fragments and shrapnel embedding in the structure itself, which is described as having limited further escalation of casualties.

The attack was attributed to a bomber sent by Hamas from the West Bank town of Beit Liqya. Hours after the Tzrifin bombing, a second suicide bombing was carried out at the Café Hillel restaurant in Jerusalem reportedly by the same terrorist infrastructure.

The attack prompted strong reactions within the Israeli political system. Members of the Knesset from the Likud and Shinui parties called for the elimination of the entire Hamas leadership and for the expulsion of Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat from Palestinian Authority territories.

In July 2004, a terror cell based in Beit Liqya, described as having been involved in the execution and planning of multiple attacks including the Tzrifin bombing, was arrested. On 14 March 2010, Israel captured an individual it identified as Maher Ouda, whom Israeli authorities accused of having headed the Hamas command in Ramallah and of responsibility for the Tzrifin and Café Hillel bombings, among other attacks.