Yahya Ayyash

Yahya Abd-al-Latif Ayyash (يحيى عياش) (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 (المهندس, transliterated al-Muhandis).

Ayyash is credited with advancing the technique of suicide bombing in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

The bombings he orchestrated killed approximately 90 Israelis, many of them civilians.

Ayyash was born in Rafat on 6 March 1966, the eldest of three brothers.

As a child, he receive 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.

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, the Egged bus 36 bombing, the Ramat Gan bus 20 bombing, and the Jerusalem bus 26 bombing.

As part of a strategic alliance between Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ayyash built the bombs used by Islamic Jihad at the Beit Lid 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 12 kg 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.

Under interrogation, the three bombers revealed Ayyash's identity.

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

The Shin Bet learned that Ayyash often spent the night in the Gaza City home of Osama Hamad, a childhood friend whose uncle, Kamil Hamad, was known to the authorities.

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.

He was assassinated by Shin Bet on 5 January 1996.

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.

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.

He was in Beit Lahia at the time.

Israel has a policy that it never confirms or denies its participation in targeted killings.

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

In 2012, former Shin Bet director Carmi Gillon confirmed the story in the documentary The Gatekeepers''.

Kamil Hamad disappeared and it is rumored that he received US$1 million, a fake passport and a visa to the US.