25 years since the Sbarro bombing

The parents of Melbourne-raised teenager Malki Roth are renewing calls for the mastermind of the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem to be extradited and brought to trial, as the 25th anniversary of the attack approaches.

Malki, 15, was among 16 people killed on August 9, 2001, when a Hamas suicide bomber detonated explosives packed with nails and bolts inside the crowded restaurant at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road. Seven of the dead were children and a further 130 people were wounded in one of the deadliest attacks of the Second Intifada. Malki’s best friend, 16-year-old Michal Raziel, was also killed.

Although born in the United States, Malki spent much of her childhood in Melbourne, before making aliyah to Jerusalem.

A gifted flautist and youth group leader, Malki volunteered caring for children with disabilities, inspired in part by her youngest sister Haya. The Roth family established Keren Malki, a charitable foundation supporting Israeli families raising children with severe disabilities, in her memory.

Hamas operative Ahlam Tamimi, who scouted the location and escorted the bomber to the restaurant, was convicted and sentenced to 16 life terms in an Israeli court. She was released in 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and has since lived openly in Amman, Jordan, despite facing terrorism charges in Washington since 2013 and appearing on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list as its sole female fugitive.