Events in the year 1997 in Israel.

Incumbents

President of Israel The president of the State of Israel (, or ) is the head of state of Israel. The president is mostly, though not entirely, ceremonial; actual executive power is vested in the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet led by the Prime Minister of Israel, pr ...

–

Ezer Weizman Ezer Weizman (, ; 15 June 1924 – 24 April 2005) was an Israeli major general and politician who served as the president of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air ...

Prime Minister of Israel The prime minister of Israel (, Hebrew abbreviations, Hebrew abbreviation: ; , ''Ra'īs al-Ḥukūma'') is the head of government and chief executive of the Israel, State of Israel. Israel is a parliamentary republic with a President of Isra ...

–

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...

(

Likud Likud (, ), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement (), is a major Right-wing politics, right-wing, political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing par ...

) * President of the Supreme Court –

Aharon Barak Aharon Barak (; born 16 September 1936) is an Israeli lawyer and jurist who served as President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 to 2006. Prior to this, Barak served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1978 to 1995, and bef ...

* Chief of General Staff –

Amnon Lipkin-Shahak Amnon Lipkin-Shahak (; March 18, 1944 – December 19, 2012) was an Israeli military officer and politician. He served as Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, as a Member of the Knesset, and as Minister of Transportation and Minister of ...

Government of Israel The Cabinet of Israel (; ) is the cabinet which exercises Executive (government), executive authority in the State of Israel. It consists of Minister (government), ministers who are chosen and led by the Prime Minister of Israel, prime ministe ...

– 27th Government of Israel

Events

* 4 February –

1997 Israeli helicopter disaster The 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster () occurred on February 4, 1997, when two Israeli Air Force transport helicopters ferrying Israeli soldiers into Israel's occupied zone in southern Lebanon collided in mid-air, killing all 73 Israeli military ...

: Two IAF troop-transport

CH-53 Sea Stallion The CH-53 Sea Stallion (Sikorsky S-65) is a family of American heavy-lift transport helicopters designed and built by the American manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. The Sea Stallion was originally developed in response to a request from the Unite ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s collide in darkness near the remote

She'ar Yashuv She'ar Yashuv () is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Upper Galilee in the northeastern Hula Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council. In it had a population of . The moshav came to public awarenes ...

kibbutz, in northern Israel, killing 77 IDF soldiers. * 13 March –

Island of Peace massacre The Island of Peace massacre was a high-profile shooting attack that took place on 13 March 1997, when a Jordanian soldier opened fire on a group of young Israeli schoolgirls and their teacher at the Island of Peace. Seven of the girls were kil ...

: Seven 11-year-old girls from

Beit Shemesh Beit Shemesh () is a city council (Israel), city located approximately west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District. A center of Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodoxy, Beit Shemesh has a population of 170,683 as of 2024. The city is named afte ...

's Feurst School are killed and many other are severely injured by a

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

ian soldier, who opened fire on the schoolchildren while they were on a class trip at the "

Island of Peace The Island of Peace, or Al-Baqoura as it is known in Jordan, is an area in northern Jordan bordering the Jordan River. The park is at the confluence of the Jordan River and Yarmouk River.

", a joint Israeli and Jordanian tourist resort, under Jordanian rule. * July - The

1997 Maccabiah Games The 15th Maccabiah Games are primarily remembered for being marred by a Maccabiah bridge collapse, bridge collapse that killed several participants. The Maccabiah had more than 5,000 athletes from 33 countries competing in 36 sports. New sports fo ...

are held. * 14 July –

Maccabiah bridge collapse The Maccabiah bridge collapse was the catastrophic failure of a pedestrian bridge over the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 14, 1997. The collapse of the temporary metal and wooden structure killed four and injured more than 60 Australian ...

- A pedestrian bridge collapses over the

Yarkon River The Yarkon River, also Yarqon River or Jarkon River (, ''Nahal HaYarkon''; , ''Nahr al-Auja''), is a river in central Israel. The source of the Yarkon ("Greenish" in Hebrew) is at Tel Afek (Antipatris), north of Petah Tikva. It flows west throu ...

killing four and injuring 60 Australian athletes who are visiting Israel to participate in the

Maccabiah Games The Maccabiah Games (, or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics") is an international multi-sport event with summer and winter sports competitions featuring Jews and Israelis regardless of religion ...

. File:Israel 159.JPG, Peace Island memorial for the victims of the 1997 Peace Island massacre File:Ason Hameso.jpg, Monument for the 73 IDF soldiers killed in the

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

The most prominent events related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict which occurred during 1997 include: * 14 January – The government of Israel approves the

Hebron Agreement The Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron, also known as the Hebron Protocol or Hebron Agreement, was signed on 17 January 1997 by Israel, represented by Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestine Liberation Organiz ...

. * 16 January – The

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

approves the

. Notable Palestinian militant operations against Israeli targets
The most prominent Palestinian militant acts and operations committed against Israeli targets during 1997 include: * 21 March – Café Apropo bombing: A Palestinian Arab suicide bomber kills three and injures 49 in a coffee shop in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. * 30 July – 1997 Mahane Yehuda Market Bombings: 16 Israelis are killed and 178 wounded in two consecutive suicide bombings in the

Mahane Yehuda Market Mahane Yehuda Market (), often referred to as "The Shuk" (), is a marketplace (originally open-air, but now partially covered) in Jerusalem. Popular with locals and tourists alike, the market's more than 250 vendors sell fresh fruits and vegetable ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. * 4 September –

Ben Yehuda Street Bombing A series of attacks were perpetrated or ordered by Palestinian Arabs, some of them acting as suicide bombers, on Jewish targets in Jerusalem's Ben Yehuda Street from February 1948 onwards. Ben Yehuda Street was a major thoroughfare. 1948 (49� ...

: Three

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

suicide bombers A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

simultaneously blow themselves up on the Ben Yehuda Street pedestrian mall in Jerusalem, killing five Israelis. The bombing was carried out by Palestinian Arabs from the village of

Asira ash-Shamaliya Asira ash-Shamaliya () is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate, located 3.5 kilometers north of Nablus in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of approximately 8,813 i ...

. Notable Israeli military operations against Palestinian militancy targets
The most prominent Israeli military

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...

operations (

military campaign A military campaign is large-scale long-duration significant military strategy plan incorporating a series of interrelated military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war. The term derives from th ...

s and

military operations A military operation (op) is the coordinated military actions of a state, or a non-state actor, in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operatio ...

) carried out against

Palestinian militants Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence or terrorism committed by Palestinians with the intent to accomplish political goals in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Common objectives of political violence by Pal ...

during 1997 include: * 25 September – assassination attempt on Khaled Mashal: Two

Mossad The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (), popularly known as Mossad ( , ), is the national intelligence agency of the Israel, State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with M ...

agents attempted to assassinate

Khaled Mashal Khaled Mashal (, ; born 28 May 1956) is a Palestinian politician who served as the second chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from 1996 until May 2017, when he was succeeded by Ismail Haniyeh. He has also covered duties as the acting lea ...

, the

' Jordanian branch chief, in Jordan by injecting him a toxin in his ear. The operation failed after the Jordanian authorities managed to apprehend the two

agents and later on, in exchange for their release, an Israeli physician had to fly to

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

and administer an antidote to Mashal. The fall out from the failed assassination eventually led to the release of Sheik

Ahmed Yassin Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin (; June 1936 – 22 March 2004) was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, an Islamist political and military organization. He also served as the first chairman of the Hamas Shura Council and ...

, the founder and spiritual leader of the Hamas movement, and scores of Hamas prisoners.

Notable births

* 12 April –

Marc Hinawi Marc Hinawi (also Hinnawi and Hinaui; ; ; born April 12, 1997) is an Arab-Israeli swimmer. At the 2013 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival, at the age of 16 Hinawi won a gold medal in the 400 meter (m) freestyle finals, setting a new world r ...

, swimmer * 12 May – Odeya Rush, actress

Notable deaths

* 4 April – Leo Picard (b. 1900), German-born Israeli geologist and an expert in the field of hydrology. * 12 April – Nechama Leibowitz (b. 1905), Russian (Latvia)-born Israeli Bible scholar. * 17 April –

Chaim Herzog Chaim Herzog (; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997) was an Israeli politician, military officer, lawyer and author who served as the president of Israel between 1983 and 1993. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Dublin, the son of Ireland' ...

(b. 1918), British-born Israeli politician, the sixth president of Israel. * 1 October – Inbal Perlmutter (b. 1971), Israeli musician. * 2 December – Anat Elimelech (b. 1974), Israeli actress and model * 17 December –

Uzi Narkiss Uzi Narkiss (; January 6, 1925 – December 17, 1997) was an Israeli general. Narkiss was commander of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) units in the Central Region during the 1967 Six-Day War. Narkiss appears in the famous photograph of Defense Mi ...

(b. 1925), distinguished Israeli general.

Major public holidays

References

External links

IDF History in 1997 @ dover.idf.il
{{DEFAULTSORT:1997 In Israel

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

1990s in Israel

Years of the 20th century in Israel