Hamas commander behind deadly Israeli school bus attack faces justice

Nearly 15 years after a laser-guided Kornet anti-tank missile tore into an Israeli school bus near Kibbutz Sa’ad, close to the Gaza border, Israel is preparing to indict Basel Salahieh, the senior Hamas military operative accused of masterminding the deadly attack.

The tank-killing missile, capable of penetrating modern armor, was deliberately fired from Gaza at the yellow school bus in April 2011, killing 16-year-old Daniel Viflic and wounding the driver. Dozens of children had stepped off the bus only minutes earlier, narrowly averting what could have become a mass slaughter of Israeli schoolchildren.

In an extraordinary twist, Salahieh was later imprisoned by Yahya Sinwar following an internal Hamas feud. After his Gaza prison was struck during the war, Hamas moved him to house arrest—where IDF troops eventually captured him alive. Now, nearly 15 years after the attack, he is set to face Israeli justice.