Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar praised Venezuela’s decision to approve the extradition to Panama of the mastermind of the 1994 Panamanian airline bombing, calling it in an X post on Sunday “a significant breakthrough.”
Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901, flying en route from Colón city to Panama City, exploded shortly after departing Enrique Adolfo Jiménez Airport.
Twenty-one people were killed, including 12 members of Panama’s Jewish community, the target of the attack.
El atentado contra el vuelo 901 en Panamá en 1994, en el que fueron asesinados 20 pasajeros y miembros de la tripulación —la mayoría de ellos miembros de la comunidad judía, incluidos cuatro israelíes— sigue siendo una herida abierta.
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) March 29, 2026
La decisión de extraditar a Ali Zaki Hage… https://t.co/ToaDKY2FbK
Ali Hage Zaki Jalil, of Lebanese descent, was living on Venezuela’s Margarita Island, when he was arrested by authorities in November 2025. Panama was seeking his extradition.
Noting that four Israelis were among those killed and calling it an “open wound,” Sa’ar wrote that “it is hoped that this measure will spur the discovery of the truth and shed light on his ties to the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which also operates to spread terrorism in Latin America and poses a threat not only to Israel, Lebanon and the Middle East, but to peace throughout the entire world.”
The bombing took place on July 19, 1994, one day after the attack on the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which a suicide bomber drove a truck filled with explosives into the structure, killing 85 people and wounding more than 300 others.
U.S., Israeli and Panamanian intelligence services have long believed the bombings were connected, as they used the same methods and explosives.
