Jordan has reportedly informed the Hamas terror group that it plans to deport a woman convicted of planning a 2001 suicide bombing that killed 16 people at a Jerusalem pizza parlor, in a move that could bring a long-delayed measure of justice to families of victims.
Ahlam Tamimi was convicted in an Israeli court of orchestrating the grisly August 9, 2001 attack on a crowded Sbarro’s eatery in central Jerusalem, but released in the 2011 deal for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and has found safe harbor in Jordan since.
In 2017, the US Justice Department announced it was seeking her extradition, a step that had been urged by the family of Israeli-American victim Malki Roth but which was rebuffed by Amman.
According to Qatari news outlet Al-Araby al-Jadeed, Jordanian intelligence authorities informed Hamas on Sunday that Tamimi would be extradited to the United States unless a third country willing to take her in could be found.
There was no confirmation of the report from any official source.
The report emerged just as the White House announced it would host Jordan’s King Abdullah II for talks with US President Donald Trump on February 11; Amman is thought to be seeking ways to remain in good standing with Trump despite refusing his proposal for Jordan and Egypt to host displaced Gazans.
During US President Donald Trump’s first term in office, his administration said it was considering
withholding aid to Jordan until it agreed to extradite Tamimi, but ultimately no action was taken.
Tamimi, a Hamas activist who chose the target for the bombing and guided the bomber there, was sentenced in 2003 to 16 life sentences for the attack, which also injured 130 people.
Among the dead were Roth, an Australia-born 15-year-old who also held US citizenship, and Shoshana Yehudit Greenbaum, an American tourist who was expecting her first child.
Tamimi has lived freely in Jordan, where she holds citizenship, since leaving prison in 2011, hosting a TV program, giving lectures and making numerous public appearances extolling the bombing.
In a 2017 interview with The Associated Press, she said the Palestinians have a right to resist Israel by any means, including deadly attacks.
Roth’s parents Frimet and Arnold
have waged a years-long campaign calling on US authorities to press Jordan, which has received billions of dollars in American assistance, to turn over Tamimi for trial.
The United States charged Tamimi in 2013 with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against American nationals, though the indictment remained under seal until 2017.
Though the US and Jordan signed an extradition treaty in 1995, Jordan’s high court blocked her extradition in 2017, reportedly claiming the treaty was never ratified, a contention disputed by Washington.
Two years ago, the Trump administration said it was considering withholding aid to Jordan over the case, but ultimately no action was taken. In 2021, Interpol reportedly dropped an international arrest
warrant for her.
The US has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Tamimi’s arrest.
Ties between Washington and Amman have been challenged in recent days by Trump publicly pushing for Jordan and Egypt to take in Palestinians from Gaza, which he called a
“demolition site,” after more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Both countries appeared to reject the demand, and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that the country’s stance against any displacement of Palestinians from Gaza remains “firm and unwavering.”
According to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the Hashemite Kingdom has also refused to take in Palestinians with Jordanian citizenship freed under the current hostage release and ceasefire deal in Gaza and slated for deportation.
