Yigal Amir was born on May 31, 1970, in Herzliya, Israel, to an Orthodox Yemenite Jewish family. He was one of eight children raised in a religious household. His father, Shlomo Amir, worked as a kosher poultry supervisor and religious teacher, while his mother, Geula, was a kindergarten teacher who ran a small nursery school. Amir attended religious schools in Herzliya and later studied at a high school yeshiva in Tel Aviv.

After completing high school, Amir joined the Israel Defense Forces as part of a Hesder program, which combined military service with religious studies at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh. Despite serving in a religious platoon of the Golani Brigade, fellow soldiers described him as fanatically religious. Following his service, Amir was nominated by the religious-Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva to teach Judaism in Riga, Latvia.

In 1993, Amir enrolled at Bar-Ilan University, studying law and computer science while simultaneously engaging in advanced Torah studies. During this time, he became increasingly vocal in his opposition to the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. He frequently participated in protests, organized demonstrations supporting Israeli settlers, and helped establish an illegal settlement outpost in Hebron.

Amir believed that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s peace policies endangered Jewish lives and that Rabin was a "rodef"—a concept in Jewish law that allows the killing of someone deemed to threaten innocent lives.

On November 4, 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin attended a peace rally in Tel Aviv’s Kings of Israel Square (later renamed Rabin Square). After the rally, as Rabin walked toward his car, Yigal Amir waited in a nearby parking lot. Armed with a Beretta 84F pistol, Amir fired three shots at close range. Two bullets struck Rabin, fatally wounding him, while the third injured bodyguard Yoram Rubin. Amir was immediately tackled and arrested by Rabin’s security detail.

Rabin was rushed to Ichilov Hospital but succumbed to his injuries approximately 40 minutes later due to massive blood loss and lung damage. During police interrogation, Amir expressed no remorse, stating that he was “satisfied” with his actions and that he was following “the orders of God.” Investigations revealed that Amir had made multiple unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Rabin earlier that year at various public events but failed to carry them out.

Amir’s trial began in January 1996 and concluded in March of that year. Despite undergoing psychiatric evaluations that deemed him competent, Amir admitted to the shooting and attempted to justify the assassination on religious grounds. The court rejected his defense, finding him guilty of murder and aggravated assault for wounding Rubin. On March 27, 1996, Amir was sentenced to life imprisonment for Rabin’s murder, plus six additional years for injuring Rubin. Later, he received an additional eight years for conspiracy to commit the assassination with his brother Hagai Amir and friend Dror Adani.

Following the assassination, Israel was plunged into political turmoil, with widespread condemnation of the killing. The Knesset passed a law in 2001 prohibiting the president of Israel from pardoning anyone who assassinates a prime minister, effectively ensuring Amir would never be released.

Amir spent 15 years in solitary confinement before being transferred to conditions that allowed limited interaction with other inmates. In 2004, he married Larisa Trembovler via a proxy ceremony, and in 2007, the couple had a son through a prison-approved artificial insemination procedure.

As of 2025, Yigal Amir remains incarcerated at Ramon Prison in Israel, serving a life sentence plus additional years. Despite numerous campaigns by far-right groups advocating for his release, the Israeli government has repeatedly affirmed that Amir will remain imprisoned for life.