Chapter 1
This is a story of an expertly executed plan eliminating an expert bomb-maker of Hamas, a terrorist group that fights against Israel’s occupation by planting a mobile bomb.
To stop the ongoing skirmishes across the borders and repeated terrorist attacks happening in Israel, Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chief Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo accord in 1993 in Washington D.C supervised by America.
The Oslo accord was a result of a series of negotiations for attaining peace in the region. Most of the Israel population and opposition were opposed to this peace process as they believed that this would not stop the attacks by different terrorist Palestine organizations over Israel.
There were more terrorist attacks during the period of 1993 to 1995, killing more than 90 people and injuring over 387 persons. Most of the attacks were carried out by suicide attackers carrying bombs to crowded places and detonating them, causing significant damage.
Chapter 2
Yahya Ayyash was the chief bomb maker for the dreaded organization Hamas, the organization responsible for planting and detonating the bombs. He prepared the bombs that resulted in the death of about 90 Israeli citizens. He was more popular by the nickname Engineer as he was the chief architect of bombs.
The brutal killing of their countrymen at the hands of terrorists was a severe setback to the people of Israel. Multiple requests for handing over Yahya Ayyash to Israeli authorities were initiated by Yitzhak Rabin to Yasser Arafat. But Arafat refused the request instead, blaming Israel itself for the attacks.
It was decided in a high-level meeting, that Yahya Ayyash has to be eliminated to stop the dreaded bomb attacks. Yisrael Hasson was given the task to eliminate the Engineer a.k.a Yahya Ayyash.
Agents start gathering information about his whereabouts and daily activities. Conclusive intelligence was not obtained about Ayyash even after two months of hard work.
Chapter 3
The location of Ayyash was largely unknown. The intelligence reports suggested that he had fled to Poland and operated from there, but no such information of his operation from Poland emerged. Still clueless about his location, Yisrael Hasson worked on a plan.
The Hamas operatives captured by Israel and lying in prisons were interrogated for attaining knowledge about Ayyash and a few agents were planted in these prisons to get cozy with inmates to retrieve information about him.
This plan worked, and some major information was retrieved. One is that Ayyash does not use any landline phone and does not possess a mobile phone. Secondly, he used to call certain numbers situated in Lebanon and Iran.
He changes his location frequently and does not spend more than two nights at a particular place. Tracking the numbers revealed that the calls are done from a small village of Beit Lahia situated in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Chapter 4
Next two months, agents start tracking Ayyash‘s behaviour in Beit Lahia gathering information about the patterns of the calls. A reliable Palestinian source, revealed the information, that Ayyash visits his old friend Osama Hamad in Beit Lahia for making phone calls.
Osama Hamad lived with his family in Beit Lahia, situated in northern Gaza. For contacting his senior officers in Lebanon and Iran, Yahya Ayyash visited his friend’s place and used the mobile phone.
After obtaining this information, the work began on a plan to eliminate him. Eliminating him in the populated town of Beit Lahia was not possible as this could jeopardize the ongoing Oslo peace accord agreement and would bring Israel to the forefront.
On close surveillance of the house of Osama Hamad, it was confirmed that Yahya Ayyash, would step into a room alone with his friend’s phone and start his conversation after closing the door.
Chapter 5
According to the plan, some sleeper unit members would enter the room beside the drawing-room; they would set up a camera and other audio devices and plant a bomb in the room. The next time Yahya Ayyash enters the room; they will identify his photo and match his voice sample. On confirmation, the bomb would be detonated remotely.
Though this plan was full proof, but this would also kill Osama Hamad and his family and children also might cause injury to their neighbours. Moreover, this could bring Israel to the limelight and stall the peace process. Hence this plan was discarded.
Instead, work began preparing a smaller bomb that could only eliminate Yahya Ayyash. To make that possible it should be implanted on the mobile phone so that other casualties can be avoided. The work for preparing such a bomb started.
As they were focussing on planting the mobile device, the secret agents of Mossad retrieved important information. They found that Osama Hamad’s uncle Kamal Hamad is a builder. He has an Israeli connection as he constructs buildings in Israel as well.
Chapter 6
Kamal Hamad was trying to get a visa for himself and his family to settle in the USA, but his application got rejected multiple times. Mossad agents approach Kamal Hamad and convince him to help them in tracking Ayyash with the assurance that they would ensure that the visa for him and his family gets approved.
They wanted Kamal to gift a Motorola Alpha mobile phone to his cousin Osama Hamad to which Kamal agreed. The mobile phone had a small RDX bomb planted inside it that could be detonated as and when required. This information was kept secret from Kamal.
Kamal on their next meeting gifts the Motorola mobile phone to Osama Hamad. Mossad agents wait for the moment when Yahya Ayyash approaches his house. On 28th October 1995, Yahya Ayyash arrived at the house of Osama Hamad, and after having tea, he borrows the phone and steps into another room.
He was speaking to authorities in Lebanon. The signals were immediately picked by a surveillance Israeli plane and transmitted into the Mossad regional headquarters where they tracked his call.
Chapter 7
Confirming the voice of Yahya Ayyash, and after necessary verification, the detonator button was triggered. Nothing happens, and the agents were still able to hear their conversation. It was a setback to their meticulous planning. They were able to hear the conversation, so the agents concluded that their plan was not yet compromised.
The device may have malfunctioned due to some technical glitch, and the bomb failed to detonate. The next day they contacted Kamal Hamad to get the phone back. Kamal Hamad went to Osama Hamad’s place and asks for the phone stating some billing issues and promised to return the phone within two days.
Kamal hands over the phone to Mossad agents, where they re-examine the phone and re-tests all the equipment, and after fixing the technical glitches hand back the phone to Kamal. Kamal hands over the phone to his cousin a day later.
Meanwhile, on 4th November 1995, a large rally was organized where Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin gave an emotional speech. Later in the evening, as he completed his address, and was leaving for his car, an unidentified law student Yigal Amir approaches in his close vicinity firing three rounds at him assassinating the Prime Minister. Yigal Amir was an extremist who has opposed the terms of the Oslo peace treaty.
Chapter 8
Shimon Peres, the new Israel Prime Minister, continues with his policy of eliminating the terrorists. On the morning of 5th January 1996, finally, the wait was over, and Yahya Ayyash arrives at the house of Osama Hamad. An hour later, Yahya Ayyash borrows Osama’s mobile phone and leaves for an adjacent room.
He dial’s his father Abdal Latif and starts speaking to him. The signal was picked up by an air surveillance plane that transfers it to the regional headquarters of Mossad where a voice expert recognizes the voice of Yahya Ayyash and confirms his identity.
The remote button is triggered, and this time the mobile phone explodes with a loud bang. The call gets disconnected; his father called him multiple times, but the call never connected. Later that afternoon, his father receives news of his son’s death. The explosion of the mobile bomb kills Yahya Ayyash instantly. The entire operation was so meticulously planned that only he gets killed while the other family members remained unharmed.
Mossad managed to eliminate one of the most wanted terrorist Yahya Ayyash, who was an expert bomb maker and had orchestrated the killing of innocent civilians and military personals.
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