Yahya Ayyash

Yahya Ayyash (, ; 6 March 1966 – 5 January 1996) was the chief bombmaker of Hamas and the leader of the West Bank battalion of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. In that capacity, he earned the nickname "the Engineer" . Ayyash is credited with advancing the technique of suicide bombings against Israel by Palestinian militant groups. The bombings he orchestrated killed approximately 90 Israelis, many of them civilians. He was assassinated by the Shin Bet on January 5, 1996, through a booby-trapped mobile phone.

Ayyash is celebrated by local Palestinian communities who have named streets and other locales in his honor. His name was also given to the rocket Ayyash-250 produced by Hamas.

Early life Ayyash was born in Rafat on 6 March 1966, the eldest of three brothers. As a child, he received an award from the Islamic Trust for his talent in memorizing the Quran.

As a boy, Ayyash's hobby was repairing radios and television sets. After graduating from high school in 1985, he entered Birzeit University in 1987. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1991.

Described as "well educated, ambitious, and soft-spoken," Ayyash hailed from a relatively affluent family. He was married with one child. He planned to study for a master's degree in Jordan, but soon after being denied a student visa, he joined Hamas.

Work for Hamas Ayyash built the bombs used in a number of Hamas suicide attacks: the Mehola Junction bombing, the Afula Bus massacre, the Hadera central station massacre, the Tel Aviv bus 5 massacre,

Unable to obtain TNT and other high explosives in the Palestinian territories, Ayyash used readily available household products such as a combination of acetone and detergent. When combined, these substances form acetone peroxide, an explosive known as "Mother of Satan" for its instability.

Ayyash came to the attention of Israeli security forces after a failed bombing attempt in Ramat Ef'al. Following a high-speed chase, three would-be Hamas suicide bombers were arrested by police. When police inspected their car, they found it rigged with a bomb—five gasoline tanks filled to capacity, connected to an acetone peroxide-based detonator. After evacuating the area, sappers used a robot armed with a shotgun to shoot the detonator in the hopes of defusing it but it blew up, causing a massive explosion. Police investigators said that if this had happened in a crowded area, hundreds would have been killed.

Assassination After the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Palestinian Authority began to cooperate more closely with the Shin Bet.

In October 1995, Kamil Hamad met with Shin Bet operatives, demanding money and Israeli identity cards for himself and his wives. After they threatened to inform on him, he agreed to cooperate. Shin Bet agents gave him a cell phone and told him it was bugged so they could listen in on his conversations. They did not tell him that it also contained 15 grams of RDX explosive. Hamad gave the phone to his nephew Osama, knowing that Ayyash regularly used Osama's phones.

At 08:00 on 5 January 1996, Ayyash's father called him and Ayyash answered. Overhead, an Israeli plane picked up their conversation and relayed it to an Israeli command post. When it was confirmed that it was Ayyash on the phone, Shin Bet remotely detonated it, killing him instantly.

Israel did not confirm or deny its role in killing Ayyash, which led to rumors and speculation about the extent of Israeli involvement.

Aftermath Following Ayyash's death, four suicide bombings killed seventy-eight Israelis in February and March 1996.

On 9 January 2026, Ayyash's widow, Hiyam, was arrested and detained in Nablus by Israeli forces after accusing her of using "inciteful language" against Israel online.

Legacy The Militant, a newsweekly associated with the Socialist Workers Party (United States), reported that "100,000 Palestinians... attended the funeral". Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian National Authority (PA), offered his condolences to Hamas leaders. In a speech soon after the death, Arafat praised Ayyash as a martyr and blamed Israel for his assassination.

In April 2010, Israel's Channel 10 reported that the Palestinian Authority named a street in Ramallah after Ayyash. The future presidential compound of the PA is being built on the street. Only a few weeks earlier, a square in Ramallah was named after the Palestinian militant Dalal Mughrabi who directed the 1978 Coastal Road massacre. PA sources said the PA did not intend to name the street after Ayyash. The Ramallah Municipality stated that the street name had been chosen at the end of the 1990s shortly after Ayyash's death.

In response, Israel, the United States and Canada condemned the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office called it an "outrageous glorification of terrorism by the Palestinian Authority"