Assassination of Rehavam Ze'evi

Assassination of Rehavam Ze'evi
Part of the Second Intifada militancy campaign
class=notpageimage| The attack site
Location	Hyatt Regency hotel, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem
Coordinates	31°47′48″N 35°14′09″E / 31.79667°N 35.23583°E / 31.79667; 35.23583
Date	17 October 2001; 22 years ago (2001-10-17) c. 7:00 am (GMT+2)
Target	Rehavam Ze'evi
Weapons	Pistol with silencer
Deaths	1 killed (Rehavam Ze'evi)
Perpetrators	Three Palestinian assailants. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility.

Israel's tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi was assassinated shortly before 7 am (GMT+2) on Wednesday, 17 October 2001 at the former Hyatt Regency Hotel in Jerusalem by a squad of Palestinians acting on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine militant organization. Ze'evi was the first Israeli minister to be assassinated since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the most senior Israeli person to be killed by Palestinian militants during the entire Arab–Israeli conflict.

Ze'evi's assassins fled the scene and hid for a time in the Mukataa compound in Ramallah under the auspices of Yasser Arafat. An agreement was eventually reached during Operation Defensive Shield, in which Israeli forces besieged the Mukataa compound. Ze'evi's assassins were transferred to the Jericho prison under the supervision of British and American guards. The Islamist militant organization Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh publicly announced his intention to free Ze'evi's assassin squad members. On 14 March 2006, the American and British guards left the Jericho jail, charging that the Palestinian Authority was not sticking to the agreement reached with Israel four years earlier. As a result, Israel launched Operation Bringing Home the Goods on the same day in which the Israel Defense Forces captured Ze'evi's assassins; they were tried in Israel, convicted, and given long prison terms.