1994 London Israeli Embassy attack

Attack on the Israeli embassy in London
Israeli embassy in London
The attack site
Location	London, United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°30′10.44″N 0°11′20.76″E / 51.5029°N 0.1891°E / 51.5029; 0.1891
Date	July 26, 1994
Target	Israeli embassy
Attack type	car bomb
Injured	20
Suspected perpetrators	pro-Iranian extremists, allegedly linked to Hezbollah

The 1994 London Israeli Embassy attack was a car bomb attack on July 26, 1994 against the Israeli embassy building in London. 20 civilians were injured.

The attack

A car packed with 20 to 30 pounds of explosives parked in front of the embassy blew up minutes after the driver left it. The blast, which caused widespread damage, was heard over a mile away. Apart from damage to the embassy building, shop windows were blown out. The attack took place one day after King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin met in Washington to discuss a Jordan-Israel peace treaty.^[1]

Aftermath

The Israeli Ambassador and British intelligence experts blamed pro-Iranian extremists, allegedly linked to Hezbollah. Thirteen hours later another car bomb exploded outside Balfour House, the headquarters in London of the main Zionist organisations, injuring six.^[2]

Five Palestinians were arrested in London in January 1995 in connection with the bombings. In December 1996, two of them, both Palestinian science graduates educated in the UK, Jawad Botmeh and Samar Alami, were found guilty of "conspiracy to cause explosions" at the Old Bailey. They were sentenced to 20 years in jail, and lost their appeal in 2001.

Botmeh was released from prison on 5 August 2008.

References

v t e Prominent terrorist attacks against Israeli targets in the history of the Arab–Israeli conflict – the 1990s 1990 Assassination of Meir Kahane (November 5) 1992 Night of the Pitchforks (February 14) Attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires (March 17) Murder of Helena Rapp (May 24) Kidnapping and murder of Nissim Toledano (December 13) 1993 Mehola Junction bombing (April 16) Murder of Yaron Chen (August 5) 1994 Afula Bus suicide bombing (April 6) Hadera central station suicide bombing (April 13) Attack on the Israeli embassy in London (July 26) Kidnapping of Nachshon Wachsman (October 14) Dizengoff Street bus bombing (October 19) Netzarim Junction bicycle bombing (November 11) Afula axe attack (November 30) 1995 Beit Lid massacre (January 22) Kfar Darom bus attack (April 9) Ramat Gan bus 20 bombing (July 24) Jerusalem bus 26 bombing (August 21) 1996 First Jerusalem bus 18 suicide bombing (February 25) ‡ Second Jerusalem bus 18 suicide bombing (March 3) Dizengoff Center suicide bombing (March 4) 1997 Island of Peace massacre (March 13) Café Apropo bombing (March 21) Mahane Yehuda Market Bombings (July 30) Ben Yehuda Street Bombing (September 4)   Attacks launched from the West Bank   Attacks launched from the Gaza strip   Attacks launched from Lebanon   Attacks launched from Jordan ‡ indicates the terrorist attack which caused the greatest amount of Israeli casualties during the 1990s Full list of Palestinian suicide attacks Full list of Lebanese rocket attacks on Israel 1980s 2000s