Assassination of Rehavam Ze'evi
Encyclopedia
Rehavam Ze'evi, Israel's tourism minister, was assassinated at shortly before 7:00 am (GMT
+2) on Wednesday, 17 October 2001, at the Hyatt Hotel in Jerusalem by a squad of Palestinians assassins acting on behalf of the PFLP militant organization. Ze'evi was the first Israeli minister to be assassinated in a terrorist attack, and the most senior Israeli person to be killed by militants during the entire Arab-Israeli conflict. It should also be noted that Zeevi's assassination was an exceptional attack amongst the Second Intifada militancy campaign
attacks which were largely directed against random groups of Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Ze'evi's assassins were able to flee the scene of the crime. For a while they were hiding in the Muqata compound in Ramallah, under the auspices of Yasser Arafat. Eventually, during Operation Defensive Shield
in which Israeli forces sieged the Muqata compound, an agreement was reached whereby Ze'evi's assassins were transferred to the Jericho prison under the supervision of British and American guards. After the Islamist militant organization Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh publicly announced his intention to free Ze'evi's assassin squad members. On March 14, 2006, the American and British guards left the Jericho jail, charging that the Palestinian Authority was not sticking to the agreement reached with Israel four years earlier. As a result Israel launched Operation Bringing Home the Goods
on the same day in which the IDF captured Ze'evi's assisins. Consequently, Ze'evi's assassins were tried in Israel, convicted and received long prison terms.
of the PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa
by Israel in August 2001.
As a result the PFLP began gathering detailed intelligence information on Ze'evi's whereabouts and schedule, and found out that he had a permanent room in the Hyatt hotel in Jerusalem, located on the border between the neighborhoods of French Hill
and Mount Scopus
.
The assassin squad members booked a room at the hotel by telephone and provided a fake ID. The assassins arrived at the hotel the night before the assassination in order to prepare for the attack.
At 6:00 am, one of the assassins, Hamdi Quran, went to the dining room of the hotel to make sure that Minister Ze'evi would indeed be there in accordance with his routine schedule. At 06:20 am Ze'evi and his wife Yael went down to the dining room of the hotel. When Quran noticed the minister was in a dining hall, he immediately went back to the room were the assassins were staying and updated his partners in crime. As a result, two assailants headed towards their vehicle, which was parked in the hotel's basement parking lot, to fetch their pistol
s which were modified with silencers. In order not to raise suspicion, the two assailants returned separately back to their room through the stair case instead of the elevator.
The two assailants met in their room, prepared their weapons, and headed towards Ze'evi's room at the 8th floor. The assailants waited for Ze'evi near the fire escape, in a location adjacent to Ze'evi's room.
Meanwhile, at 6:45 am Ze'evi's driver, Adi Maman, got to the dining room of the hotel and joined Ze'evi and his wife for breakfast.
At 06:50 am Ze'evi headed by himself towards his room using the elevator. Two minutes later, Yael Ze'evi and the driver, Adi Maman, also began heading towards Ze'evi's room.
When the elevator door opened Ze'evi stepped out of the elevator and passed the two assailants. According to the assailants testimony, Quran shouted at him "Hey!" and when Ze'evi turned to Quran, he shot Ze'evi in the head three shots from a close distance. Two bullets hit Ze'evi's head. Although the second bullet hit Ze'evi's jaw and didn't cause a fatal injury, the first bullet penetrated his brain and caused irreversible damage. Immediately after assassinating Ze'evi the assassins escaped the scene of the crime. From the hotel the assassins fled to the Palestinian Authority controlled area in the West Bank.
At 7:00 am, only a few minutes after the assassination, Yael Ze'evi and Ze'evi's driver discovered Ze'evi lying on the floor of the corridor, shot in the head and bleeding.
Ze'evi was rushed to the Hadassah Medical Center
in Jerusalem in critical condition
and the doctors attempted to save him. His death was eventually announced at 10:00 am.
Ze'evi was the first Israeli minister to be assassinated in a terrorist attack, and the most senior Israeli person to be killed by militants during the entire Arab-Israeli conflict. It should also be noted that Zeevi's assassination was an exceptional attack amongst the Second Intifada militancy campaign
attacks which were largely directed against random groups of Israeli civilians and soldiers.
of the PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa
in August 2001.
cemetery in Jerusalem, where Ze'evi was buried. President Moshe Katsav
and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
eulogized Ze'evi at his funeral.
Israel:
Palestinian territories:
International: UK prime minister Tony Blair
condemned the assassination stating "We condemn utterly this contemptible act of violence".: US President George W. Bush
condemned the assassination in the strongest terms and called it a despicable act.
In April, 2002, during Operation Defensive Shield
, Israeli security forces learned that the assassins were hiding in the Muqata, Yasser Arafat's presidential compound in Ramallah, which Israeli troops had besieged since March 29. Israel demanded that the Palestinian Authority hand over the assassins in return for withdrawing its troops. The Palestinian Authority refused to extradite the assassins. In the end, through international mediation, Israel agreed to a proposal (which came to be known as the "Ramallah Agreement") whereby Ze'evi's assassins would be imprisoned in a Jericho jail gaurded by British and American forces, and in return Israel would remove the siege of Yasser Arafat's compound. As a result, in February 2002, Arafat ordered to arrest Ze'evi's assassin squad members and imprison them in the Jericho prison. In May 2002 the British and American forces arrived at the Jericho prison.
Nevertheless, after the Islamist militant organization Hamas
won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006
, the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh publicly announced his intention to free Ze'evi's assassin squad members. On March 14, 2006, the American and British guards left the Jericho jail, charging that the Palestinian Authority was not sticking to the agreement reached with Israel four years earlier. As a result Israel launched Operation Bringing Home the Goods
on the same day.
government and with the aim of bringing the assassins to justice in Israel.
After a siege which lasted about 10 and a half hours, and after the Israeli military forces began using bulldozers to tear down the Jericho prison walls, the four assassins finally surrendered:
In addition to the four assassins, Israel also captured Ahmed Saadat (whom Israel alleges ordered Ze'evi's assassination) and Fuad Shubaki (suspected by Israel as being the mastermind behind the a shipment from Iran of smuggled weapons seized by Israel in January 2002) during the raid.
In addition, on December 25, 2008, an Israeli military court sentenced Ahmed Saadat, being the leader of the PFLP, to 30 years in prison for heading an "illegal terrorist organization" and for his responsibility for all actions carried out by his organization, especially for the assassination of Rehavam Ze'evi.
Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United...
+2) on Wednesday, 17 October 2001, at the Hyatt Hotel in Jerusalem by a squad of Palestinians assassins acting on behalf of the PFLP militant organization. Ze'evi was the first Israeli minister to be assassinated in a terrorist attack, and the most senior Israeli person to be killed by militants during the entire Arab-Israeli conflict. It should also be noted that Zeevi's assassination was an exceptional attack amongst the Second Intifada militancy campaign
Palestinian political violence
Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence undertaken to further the Palestinian cause. These political objectives include self-determination in and sovereignty over Palestine, the liberation of Palestine and establishment of a Palestinian state, either in place of both Israel and...
attacks which were largely directed against random groups of Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Ze'evi's assassins were able to flee the scene of the crime. For a while they were hiding in the Muqata compound in Ramallah, under the auspices of Yasser Arafat. Eventually, during Operation Defensive Shield
Operation Defensive Shield
Operation Defensive Shield was a large-scale military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in 2002, during the course of the Second Intifada. It was the largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. The operation was an attempt by the Israeli army to stop the...
in which Israeli forces sieged the Muqata compound, an agreement was reached whereby Ze'evi's assassins were transferred to the Jericho prison under the supervision of British and American guards. After the Islamist militant organization Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh publicly announced his intention to free Ze'evi's assassin squad members. On March 14, 2006, the American and British guards left the Jericho jail, charging that the Palestinian Authority was not sticking to the agreement reached with Israel four years earlier. As a result Israel launched Operation Bringing Home the Goods
Operation Bringing Home the Goods
Operation Bringing Home the Goods was a raid launched by the Israel Defense Forces on March 14, 2006, during the Second Intifada, on a Palestinian prison in Jericho. The prison held several prisoners wanted by Israel, whose incarceration was monitored by British and American wardens...
on the same day in which the IDF captured Ze'evi's assisins. Consequently, Ze'evi's assassins were tried in Israel, convicted and received long prison terms.
Preparations phase
In September 2001 the PFLP reached a decision to assassinate the Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi in revenge of the targeted killingTargeted killing
Targeted killing is the deliberate, specific targeting and killing, by a government or its agents, of a supposed terrorist or of a supposed "unlawful combatant" who is not in that government's custody...
of the PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa
Abu Ali Mustafa
Abu Ali Mustafa , , the kunya of Mustafa Alhaj a.k.a. Mustafa Ali Zibri, was the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine from July 2000 until he was killed by Israel forces.-Biography:...
by Israel in August 2001.
As a result the PFLP began gathering detailed intelligence information on Ze'evi's whereabouts and schedule, and found out that he had a permanent room in the Hyatt hotel in Jerusalem, located on the border between the neighborhoods of French Hill
French Hill
French Hill , also Giv'at Shapira is a neighborhood in northeastern Jerusalem. It is located on territory occupied during the Six-Day War in 1967, later annexed to Israel under the Jerusalem Law in 1980...
and Mount Scopus
Mount Scopus
Mount Scopus , جبل المشهد , جبل الصوانة) is a mountain in northeast Jerusalem. In the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Mount Scopus became a UN protected Jewish exclave within Jordanian-occupied territory until the Six-Day War in 1967...
.
The assassin squad members booked a room at the hotel by telephone and provided a fake ID. The assassins arrived at the hotel the night before the assassination in order to prepare for the attack.
The assassination
On October 17, 2001, the day of the assassination, Rehavam Ze'evi was staying at the Hyatt Hotel in Jerusalem in room number 816. Ze'evi did not have any bodyguards, as he principally refused to change his habits due to terrorist threats.At 6:00 am, one of the assassins, Hamdi Quran, went to the dining room of the hotel to make sure that Minister Ze'evi would indeed be there in accordance with his routine schedule. At 06:20 am Ze'evi and his wife Yael went down to the dining room of the hotel. When Quran noticed the minister was in a dining hall, he immediately went back to the room were the assassins were staying and updated his partners in crime. As a result, two assailants headed towards their vehicle, which was parked in the hotel's basement parking lot, to fetch their pistol
Pistol
When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder. Typically, pistols have an effective range of about 100 feet.-History:The pistol...
s which were modified with silencers. In order not to raise suspicion, the two assailants returned separately back to their room through the stair case instead of the elevator.
The two assailants met in their room, prepared their weapons, and headed towards Ze'evi's room at the 8th floor. The assailants waited for Ze'evi near the fire escape, in a location adjacent to Ze'evi's room.
Meanwhile, at 6:45 am Ze'evi's driver, Adi Maman, got to the dining room of the hotel and joined Ze'evi and his wife for breakfast.
At 06:50 am Ze'evi headed by himself towards his room using the elevator. Two minutes later, Yael Ze'evi and the driver, Adi Maman, also began heading towards Ze'evi's room.
When the elevator door opened Ze'evi stepped out of the elevator and passed the two assailants. According to the assailants testimony, Quran shouted at him "Hey!" and when Ze'evi turned to Quran, he shot Ze'evi in the head three shots from a close distance. Two bullets hit Ze'evi's head. Although the second bullet hit Ze'evi's jaw and didn't cause a fatal injury, the first bullet penetrated his brain and caused irreversible damage. Immediately after assassinating Ze'evi the assassins escaped the scene of the crime. From the hotel the assassins fled to the Palestinian Authority controlled area in the West Bank.
At 7:00 am, only a few minutes after the assassination, Yael Ze'evi and Ze'evi's driver discovered Ze'evi lying on the floor of the corridor, shot in the head and bleeding.
Ze'evi was rushed to the Hadassah Medical Center
Hadassah Medical Center
Hadassah Medical Center is a medical organization that operates two University hospitals at Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel, as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.The hospital was founded by Hadassah,...
in Jerusalem in critical condition
Critical Condition
Critical condition is a medical state.Critical Condition may also be:* Critical Condition , an episode of the television series Sex and the City* Critical Condition , a 1987 comedy film...
and the doctors attempted to save him. His death was eventually announced at 10:00 am.
Ze'evi was the first Israeli minister to be assassinated in a terrorist attack, and the most senior Israeli person to be killed by militants during the entire Arab-Israeli conflict. It should also be noted that Zeevi's assassination was an exceptional attack amongst the Second Intifada militancy campaign
Palestinian political violence
Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence undertaken to further the Palestinian cause. These political objectives include self-determination in and sovereignty over Palestine, the liberation of Palestine and establishment of a Palestinian state, either in place of both Israel and...
attacks which were largely directed against random groups of Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Claim of responsibility
The PFLP claimed responsibility for the assassination and stated that the assassination was carried out the attack as a revenge for the targeted killingTargeted killing
Targeted killing is the deliberate, specific targeting and killing, by a government or its agents, of a supposed terrorist or of a supposed "unlawful combatant" who is not in that government's custody...
of the PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa
Abu Ali Mustafa
Abu Ali Mustafa , , the kunya of Mustafa Alhaj a.k.a. Mustafa Ali Zibri, was the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine from July 2000 until he was killed by Israel forces.-Biography:...
in August 2001.
Ze'evi's funeral
The assassination of Ze'evi was a shock to the Israeli public and left a lasting impression on many Israelis. Thousands of people attended the funeral of Ze'evi that took place a day after the assassination, at the Mount HerzlMount Herzl
Mount Herzl , also Har HaZikaron , is the national cemetery of Israel on the west side of Jerusalem. It is named for Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. Herzl's tomb lies at the top of the hill. Yad Vashem, which commemorates the Holocaust, lies to the west of Mt. Herzl....
cemetery in Jerusalem, where Ze'evi was buried. President Moshe Katsav
Moshe Katsav
Moshe Katsav is an Israeli politician. He served as the eighth President of Israel, a leading Likud member of the Israeli Knesset, and a Cabinet Minister in its government....
and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
eulogized Ze'evi at his funeral.
Official reactions
Involved parties Israel:
- Prime minister Ariel SharonAriel SharonAriel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
stated that after Ze'evi's assassination "everything had changed", and he held the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, personally responsible for the assassination.
Palestinian territories:
- Palestinian AuthorityPalestinian National AuthorityThe Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...
condemned the assassination, but laced the statement with a call for Israel to immediately cease its policy of targeted killings of Palestinian militant leaders whom Israel believes are responsible for launching attacks. - President of the Palestinian Authority Yasser ArafatYasser ArafatMohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
condemned the act and said he would do all he could to arrest the assassins.
International: UK prime minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
condemned the assassination stating "We condemn utterly this contemptible act of violence".: US President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
condemned the assassination in the strongest terms and called it a despicable act.
Israeli siege of the Muqata and the following "Ramallah Agreement"
Immediately after the assassination, the Israeli security establishment launched an intensive investigation to track down the assassins and the PFLP leader whom initiated and planned the attack.In April, 2002, during Operation Defensive Shield
Operation Defensive Shield
Operation Defensive Shield was a large-scale military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in 2002, during the course of the Second Intifada. It was the largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. The operation was an attempt by the Israeli army to stop the...
, Israeli security forces learned that the assassins were hiding in the Muqata, Yasser Arafat's presidential compound in Ramallah, which Israeli troops had besieged since March 29. Israel demanded that the Palestinian Authority hand over the assassins in return for withdrawing its troops. The Palestinian Authority refused to extradite the assassins. In the end, through international mediation, Israel agreed to a proposal (which came to be known as the "Ramallah Agreement") whereby Ze'evi's assassins would be imprisoned in a Jericho jail gaurded by British and American forces, and in return Israel would remove the siege of Yasser Arafat's compound. As a result, in February 2002, Arafat ordered to arrest Ze'evi's assassin squad members and imprison them in the Jericho prison. In May 2002 the British and American forces arrived at the Jericho prison.
Nevertheless, after the Islamist militant organization Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006
Palestinian legislative election, 2006
On January 25, 2006, elections were held for the Palestinian Legislative Council , the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority . Notwithstanding the 2005 municipal elections and the January 9, 2005 presidential election, this was the first election to the PLC since 1996; subsequent...
, the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh publicly announced his intention to free Ze'evi's assassin squad members. On March 14, 2006, the American and British guards left the Jericho jail, charging that the Palestinian Authority was not sticking to the agreement reached with Israel four years earlier. As a result Israel launched Operation Bringing Home the Goods
Operation Bringing Home the Goods
Operation Bringing Home the Goods was a raid launched by the Israel Defense Forces on March 14, 2006, during the Second Intifada, on a Palestinian prison in Jericho. The prison held several prisoners wanted by Israel, whose incarceration was monitored by British and American wardens...
on the same day.
Operation Bringing Home the Goods
On March 14, 2006 IDF forces raided the Jericho prison where Ze'evi's assassin squad members were imprisoned with the aim preventing them from being released by the HamasHamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
government and with the aim of bringing the assassins to justice in Israel.
After a siege which lasted about 10 and a half hours, and after the Israeli military forces began using bulldozers to tear down the Jericho prison walls, the four assassins finally surrendered:
- Ahed Abu Gholma - the mastermind behind the assassination of Rehavam Ze'evi.
- Majdi Rahima Rimawi – the head of the assassination squad whom was the getaway driver during the operation.
- Hamdi QuranHamdi QuranHamdi Quran is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He grew to prominence when he assassinated Rehavam Ze'evi, the Tourism Minister of Israel. Quran was imprisoned by the Palestinian National Authority in a Jericho prison guarded by American and European guards. In 2006,...
- the actual person whom shot Rehavam Ze'evi. - Bassel al-Asmar - the look-out for the operation.
In addition to the four assassins, Israel also captured Ahmed Saadat (whom Israel alleges ordered Ze'evi's assassination) and Fuad Shubaki (suspected by Israel as being the mastermind behind the a shipment from Iran of smuggled weapons seized by Israel in January 2002) during the raid.
The assassins' trial in Israel
Ze'evi's assassins were tried in Israel. The four were convicted and received long prison terms - Quran received a sentence of 125 years in prison, Asmar received a sentence of 45 years in prison and Majdi Rahima Rimawi received a life sentence with an additional 80 years in prison and Ahad Olma was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in initiating and planning the assassination.In addition, on December 25, 2008, an Israeli military court sentenced Ahmed Saadat, being the leader of the PFLP, to 30 years in prison for heading an "illegal terrorist organization" and for his responsibility for all actions carried out by his organization, especially for the assassination of Rehavam Ze'evi.
External links
- Israeli minister shot dead - published on BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
on October 17, 2001 - Assassination shatters peace hopes - published on The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
on October 17, 2001 - Israel's Tourism Minister Killed - published on the Telegraph-Herald on October 18, 2001