The March 15 request by the United States for Jordan to extradite Ahlam Tamimi, the Palestinian woman involved in the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria suicide bombing, surprised everyone — Hamas, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and to a large extend Israel as well. Tamimi, a one-time student at Birzeit University in the West Bank, was convicted in Israel for driving Hamas member Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri from the village of Aqaba, near the West Bank town of Jenin, to Jerusalem, where he perpetrated the attack.
The Sbarro bombing is one of the deadliest terror attacks of the second intifada (2000-2005), killing 15 people, including two Americans. Among the dead were seven children. Another 140 people were injured, among them Americans. Israeli troops captured Tamimi about a month after the attack, and a military court sentenced her to 16 life terms. She was freed in the 2011 prisoner deal between Israel and Hamas involving more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners being exchanged for an Israeli soldier held by Hamas. She never expressed remorse for her deed and even proclaimed that she would do it again.