The assailant was Yigal Amir, an Israeli law student and ultranationalist who radically opposed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's peace initiative, particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords.

The assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin came immediately after an anti-violence rally in support of the Oslo peace process.

[1] Before the rally, Rabin was disparaged personally by right-wing conservatives and Likud leaders who perceived the peace process as an attempt to forfeit the occupied territories and a capitulation to Israel's enemies.

[5][7] Rallies organized by Likud and other right-wing groups featured depictions of Rabin in a Nazi SS uniform, or in the crosshairs of a gun.

[8][9] In July 1995, Netanyahu led a mock funeral procession featuring a coffin and hangman's noose at an anti-Rabin rally where protesters chanted, "Death to Rabin".

Amir had strenuously opposed Rabin's peace initiative, particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords, because he felt that an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank would deny Jews their "biblical heritage which they had reclaimed by establishing settlements".

[19] Another incident describing Amir's comments to a fellow student about stating the vidui prior to an earlier, aborted attempt on his life was ignored by the organization as "non-credible".

The driver, Menachem Damati, was ordered to proceed to Ichilov Hospital at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, a short drive away.

Doctors performed an initial examination, attached Rabin to an IV, and drained the air that had seeped into his right chest cavity with a tube inserted into his ribcage.

At one point, the doctors managed to briefly stabilize his vital signs, and after being informed, Haber told a high-ranking Defense Ministry official to begin preparations for setting up a makeshift office at the hospital with telephones and fax lines to enable Rabin to continue his work as Prime Minister while recuperating.

[31] At 11:15 pm, Eitan Haber walked out of the hospital to face the television cameras outside and announced Rabin's death to the media: The government of Israel announces in consternation, in great sadness, and in deep sorrow, the death of prime minister and minister of defense Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered by an assassin, tonight in Tel Aviv.

About three hours after Rabin's death, Yehuda Hiss, the Israeli government's chief pathologist, arrived at Ichilov Hospital to conduct an autopsy together with two assistants, including a photographer.

Hiss concluded that Rabin had died of massive blood loss and the collapse of both of his lungs, and that his chances of surviving the shooting had been extremely low.

He made a full confession and after being told that Rabin had died, Amir expressed joy and asked to be brought schnapps to make a celebratory toast.

Yigal Amir was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for Rabin's murder and an additional six years for injuring Yoram Rubin.

[50] In 2001, the Knesset later passed the Yigal Amir Law, which prohibits a parole board from recommending a pardon or reduction in a sentence for the assassin of a Prime Minister.

[52] After the murder, it was revealed that Avishai Raviv, a well known right-wing extremist at the time, was in fact a Shin Bet agent-informer code-named Champagne.

[54][55] The assassination has been described as emblematic of a kulturkampf ("cultural struggle") between religious right-wing and secular left-wing forces within Israel.

It was critical of Shin Bet for putting the Prime Minister at risk and ignoring threats to his life from Jewish extremists.