Jordan reportedly warns it could extradite Sbarro bombing mastermind to US for trial

In reversal, Amman said to give Hamas one day to find Ahlam Tamimi another home or it will send her stateside, where she is wanted over 2001 Jerusalem attack that killed 16, including 2 Americans

Ahlam al-Tamimi, during an interview in her home in Amman, Jordan, on March 21, 2017. (AP Photo/ Omar Akour)
Ahlam al-Tamimi, during an interview in her home in Amman, Jordan, on March 21, 2017. (AP Photo/ Omar Akour)

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 that killed 16 people in a crowded Sbarro’s eatery in central Jerusalem, but was released in the 2011 deal for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and quickly found safe harbor in Jordan.

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, like Egypt, declining to fall in with his proposal to relocate Gazans there.

Police and medics surround the scene of a suicide bombing inside Jerusalem’s Sbarro restaurant, Thursday, August 9, 2001. Sixteen people were killed, and 130 injured. A sixteenth victim died in 2023. (AP/Peter Dejong)

Tamimi, a Hamas activist who chose the target for the bombing and guided the bomber there, was sentenced in Israel 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.

Malki Roth with her parents Frimet and Arnold, at her bat mitzva in 1998 (Courtesy the Roth family)

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.

Hamas Islamist terror group leader Khaled Masahal, left, greets Ahlam Tamimi, who orchestrated the 2001 Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem, upon her arrival in Cairo, October 18, 2011. Tamimi was one of over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners freed from Israeli prisons in exchange for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped and held hostage for five years in Gaza by Hamas. (AP Photo)

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.

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. In 2021, Interpol reportedly dropped an international arrest warrant for her.

Read: Failed by Israel, Malki Roth’s parents hope US can extradite her gloating killer

The US has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Tamimi’s arrest.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II (R) is greeted by US President Donald Trump at the White House on June 25, 2018. (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

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 who were slated for deportation.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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