On 19 November 1978 a bomb exploded in an intercity bus during a stopover at Mitzpe Yeriho in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. Four people were killed and 37 people were wounded in the attack.

Attack

The bus that was attacked was an intercity bus scheduled to go from Shefech Zohar, a spa on the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

, to

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 ...

via

Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...

and

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 ...

. The bomb was reported by the bus driver to have been thrown into the crowded bus in Mitzpe Yeriho by a man who escaped in a waiting pick-up truck toward the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

. The police investigation however found that inspection of the bus frame indicated that the bomb had been placed inside the bus rather than thrown. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by

Fatah Fatah ( ; ), formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (), is a Palestinian nationalist and Arab socialist political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

and the

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and Maoist organization. It is also frequently referred to as the Democratic Front, or al-Jabha al-Dīmūqrāṭiyya (). It is a member ...

(DFLP). The victims were identified as Itzhak Grobard, an Israeli

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

nik from Ein Hachoresh; Charles Bilogora, 18, from Belgium, who worked as a volunteer in Ein Hachoresh; Shmaryahu Nechmad, a young Israeli army sergeant; and Aryeh Bentovim, 26, from Kibbutz Mitzpeh Shalom. Among those injured were three Canadians, two Americans and five Swedish women. The attack was one of three terrorist incidents the same day, which was apparently timed to coincide with the first anniversary of Egyptian President

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...

's visit to Jerusalem, which launched the peace process between Israel and Egypt. The other attacks took place on the main street of

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

, in which two people were slightly injured and caused damage to nearby shops, and in downtown Jerusalem where an explosive charge was found and dismantled. The attacks were condemned by the United States government, as State Department spokesman

Hodding Carter William Hodding Carter II (February 3, 1907 – April 4, 1972) was an American progressive journalist and author. Among other distinctions in his career, Carter was a Nieman Fellow and Pulitzer Prize winner. He died in Greenville, Mississippi, ...

said that the terrorist acts have "no justification" and that "we condemn those that perpetrated these attacks." The attack was identified as the worst of 14 terror attacks against Israelis in six weeks, that led to the

Israel Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

attacking terrorist bases in South Lebanon in December a few weeks later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitzpe Yeriho bombing November 1978 in Asia Attacks on buses by Palestinian militant groups Fatah attacks Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attacks 1978 in the Israeli Military Governorate 1978 road incidents Road incidents in Palestine Mass murder in 1978 20th-century mass murder in Palestine Bus bombings in Asia Improvised explosive device bombings in 1978 Improvised explosive device bombings in Palestine Terrorist incidents in the West Bank