Nagham Zbeedat, Haaretz, 20/8/2024
In the aftermath of an attempted suicide attack in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening, one name began gaining significant traction across Arab social media platforms, particularly on X: Yahya Ayyash. Known as "The Engineer," Ayyash was a key figure in Hamas and one of the masterminds behind the wave of suicide bombings in Israel during the 1990s until his assassination.
The Israel Police and the Shin Bet announced on Monday that an explosive device that detonated in southeast Tel Aviv on Sunday evening was an attempted terror attack. The attacker, who had the explosives on his body, was killed in the blast, while a bystander sustained moderate injuries and was taken to a hospital.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the explosion, stating they would renew out suicide attacks in Israel "as long as the massacres by the occupiers and the policy of targeted killings persist."
A quarter century after his death, Ayyash's name is now resurfacing in Arabic-language online discussions, with many users drawing parallels between the Tel Aviv attack and what they characterize as Ayyash's legacy, as a militant symbol of resistance against Israeli occupation.
Who is Yahya Ayyash?
Yahya Ayyash was born on March 6, 1966, in Rafat near Nablus. After excelling in high school, he went on to study engineering at Birzeit University, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1988. In early 1992, Ayyash joined the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, where he specialized in creating explosives from locally available materials. He is infamous for introducing the tactic of suicide bombings into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Ayyash quickly rose to prominence as one of Hamas's chief bomb-makers, earning the nickname "the Engineer." The bombings he organized resulted in the deaths of over 70 Israelis.
On January 5, 1996, after an extensive manhunt, Ayyash was killed by the Shin Bet security service. The agency managed to infiltrate Hamas and compromised one of Ayyash's associates, who handed him a cell phone rigged with explosives. Once it was confirmed that Ayyash was using the phone, the Shin Bet detonated it, killing him instantly.
Hamas itself has commemorated Ayyash by naming one of its longer-range rockets after him; it was first launched towards Eilat's international airport in 2021. Hamas has targeted Israel using the Ayyash 250 missile several times during the Gaza war. A rocket fired from the West Bank city of Jenin in June 2023 was claimed by a Hamas faction calling itself the Al-Ayyash Battalion. The Palestinian Authority has also commemorated Ayyash by naming a Ramallah street after him.
'Ayyash is alive'
The renewed focus on Ayyash highlights the influence of his tactics and ideology among certain sections of the Arab world, where he is often regarded as a martyr and a hero.
Adham Abu Selmiya, a Palestinian writer and activist, shared an image on X of a destroyed bus, a reference to Yahya Ayyash's suicide bus bombings, next to a road sign saying "Tel Aviv" with the slogan in English and Hebrew: 'We are coming!' Captioning the image, Abu Selmiya declared, "It is only right that we wear this 'smug' smile at Netanyahu!" He further commented, "Now, the pillars of his entity tremble at the thunderous return of the era of martyrdom operations in the occupied land."
Egyptian-Palestinian writer Yousef Al-Damouky wrote, "He will return from where you thought you killed him," referring to the assassination of Yahya Ayyash. Al-Damouky added, "He will laugh for a long time while you panic. Yahya will tell you with his eternal wisdom: not everyone you assassinate dies."
Images of Yahya Ayyash are spreading across the internet, accompanied by a trending caption declaring, "Ayyash is alive, don't believe he's dead." Many are also sharing a quote attributed to Ayyash: "The Jews can uproot my body from Palestine, but I want to plant something in the people that they cannot uproot."
