A US-Israeli woman has died after 22 years in a coma from injuries suffered in a Palestinian suicide bombing at a pizza restaurant in Jerusalem.
Chana Nachenberg was 31 at the time of the attack at the Sbarro pizzeria, which killed 15 other people, including seven children and a pregnant woman.
She is the third US national to die as a result of the bombing in August 2001. The US is seeking the extradition from Jordan of a woman convicted by Israel of murder for her role in the attack.
Ahlam Tamimi, a Jordanian citizen who lived in the occupied West Bank at the time, was given 16 life sentences by an Israeli court in 2003. She was released in 2011 as part of a deal to free an Israeli soldier held captive for more than five years by Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.
Tamimi helped the bomber, Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri, carry out the attack. She returned to Jordan after her release, and has spoken about her pride at her involvement in the atrocity.
Tamimi is on FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list and the US says it is seeking her extradition on charges of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against Americans. Jordan’s High Court has rejected a previous request.
The parents of one of the two other US citizens killed in the attack – Malki Roth, who was 15 at the time – have campaigned for years for the US to do more to effect Tamimi’s extradition.
The Sbarro restaurant, at a busy intersection in the centre of west Jerusalem, was packed with customers when Tamimi and Masri, both Hamas members, entered on August 9. Tamimi, who chose the target, left before Masri blew himself up. In addition to those killed, about 130 people were injured.
It was one of multiple suicide bombings by Hamas during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel, which began the previous year and tailed off in 2005. —BBC
