National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir met in prison with Hassan Salameh, a senior member of Hamas’ military wing who was convicted of orchestrating a series of deadly suicide bombings that killed dozens of Israelis in the 1990s.
During the meeting, Ben-Gvir reminded Salameh of the period following the attacks, when he participated in demonstrations demanding tough action against him. Ben-Gvir told Salameh that, decades later, meeting him as national security minister represented a full-circle moment, and said he intends to work toward having him executed.
Salameh was one of the key figures behind the wave of suicide bombings that struck Israel in the mid-1990s. As a senior member of Hamas’ military wing, he was involved in planning two bombings on Jerusalem’s Route 18, carried out one week apart in February and March 1996. The attacks killed dozens of people and wounded many others.
According to the ruling in the case of Mahmoud Abu-Warda, who recruited the suicide bombers, the recruitment was carried out as part of advance planning by Salameh and Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif.
On February 25, 1996, a suicide bomber detonated explosives aboard a Route 18 bus in Jerusalem, killing 24 people. That same day, another attack was carried out at the Ashkelon Junction, killing IDF soldier Hofit Ayesh. A week later, on March 3, another suicide bomber detonated on a Route 18 bus in Jerusalem, killing 20 people.
At the time, Salameh was operating within Hamas’ military wing. Following the assassination of Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash in January 1996, Deif tasked Salameh with advancing a campaign of revenge attacks against Israel. Salameh had previously been expelled to Lebanon, where he underwent military training and studied, among other subjects, the construction of explosive devices.
The manhunt for Salameh ended in May 1996, when an IDF force located him in the Hebron area and shot and wounded him. He was subsequently arrested and brought to trial in Israel.
A military court convicted Salameh and sentenced him to 46 cumulative life sentences, along with an additional 20 years in prison. A United Nations document recording the sentence states that he was convicted of responsibility for three suicide attacks in which 46 people were killed and approximately 90 were wounded. One of the judges on the panel also believed at the time that Salameh should receive the death penalty.
Despite spending decades behind bars, Salameh remained a prominent figure within Hamas. In 2023, a book he wrote in prison was published in the Gaza Strip under the title “Buses Catch Fire," focusing on attacks carried out in retaliation for Ayyash’s assassination. The book was launched at a ceremony organized by Hamas’ military wing and attended by senior figures from the terrorist organization.