The December 2005 HaSharon Mall bombing was a terror attack carried out on December 5, 2005, in the HaSharon Mall in Netanya, Israel. Five people were killed and over forty injured in the attack.
The Palestinian Islamist militant organization Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Monday, 5 December 2005, at around 11:30 am, a Palestinian suicide bomber approached the entrance to the HaSharon Mall in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya; he detonated explosives hidden under his clothes when he approached the guards at the entrance for security inspection. Five people were killed in the attack, and more than 40 injured.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility and identified the attacker as Lotfi Abu Saada, from the village of Illar in northern West Bank. In response, Israel killed two senior militants in a Gaza airstrike.
After the attack, Israel closed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz approved the resumption of targeted killings of Islamic Jihad operatives, which had been suspended for several months in the West Bank. He also ordered the IDF to regain control of areas in the West Bank controlled by PIJ.
The IDF also planned a large operation in Gaza in retaliation, the first such operation following the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip in September.