WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Obama administration designated a top Palestinian Islamic Jihad official as a terrorist.

Ziyad al-Nakhalah is Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s deputy secretary general, the State Department said in a statement, and noted that Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for a Dec. 22 Tel Aviv bus bombing.

No one was hurt in that bombing, in which an alert driver evacuated the bus after passengers noticed a suspicious knapsack under a seat.

“Ziyad has repeatedly taken credit for attacks against Israel,” the statement said. “For example, Ziyad took credit for PIJ’s indiscriminate missile attacks into Israel in 2011, 2009, and 2008.”

U.S. law bans any transactions with designated terrorists and any assets they have that come under the control of any U.S.-based institution are frozen.