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Grandmother Blows Self Up in
Gaza Suicide Blast
By Steven Erlanger,
The New York Times
Israel/Palestine
November
24, 2006
In the first suicide bombing claimed by Hamas in nearly two years, a grandmother blew herself up on Thursday near Israeli soldiers operating inside Gaza, near the town of Beit Lahiya.
The soldiers threw a stun grenade toward the woman, who the Israeli authorities said had been acting in a suspicious manner, and she detonated her explosive belt, killing herself. Two soldiers were slightly wounded. The woman, identified as Fatima Omar Mahmud al-Najar, had nine children and more than 40 grandchildren, Agence France-Presse reported. News reports put her age at either 57 or 64.
She was shown on television in a so-called martyr’s video, wearing a white head scarf and a bright green Hamas bandanna and holding an M-16 automatic rifle. The Hamas military wing had threatened to resume suicide bombings in response to the Israeli shelling of houses in Beit Hanun two weeks ago. The shelling killed 19 people, most of them women and children as they slept, after radar on an artillery cannon malfunctioned, the Israelis said.
Israeli Channel 10 television reported Thursday night that Israel might pay compensation to the families of the victims; Israel has repeatedly refused in the past to pay compensation after such artillery errors.
Hamas was elected in January to lead the Palestinian Authority, and efforts continue to be made by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah faction, to organize a unity government that would replace the current Hamas administration.
Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, and they have cut off funds — including taxes collected by Israel from Palestinians for their government — to the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority. A new government would be intended to allow payments to resume. An exiled Hamas political official, Khaled Meshal, who seems to direct the Hamas military wing, was in Cairo on Thursday discussing the issue with the Egyptians.
In northern Gaza on Thursday, Faik Aby al-Kamsan, commander of a militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees; a deputy, Mahmoud al-Basiyuni; and a third man were killed when an Israeli missile hit their car in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Israeli Army said that the men had been involved in firing Qassam rockets into Israel on Wednesday and Thursday, and that there was a secondary explosion from the car after the missile hit.
Two other Palestinians were reported to have died in armed clashes with Israeli troops. Another Palestinian, Muhammad Jarjawi, 20, was also killed. It was not immediately clear whether he was a civilian or a militant.
At least seven Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded Thursday.
About 1,000 Israeli soldiers are in northern Gaza in operations intended to try to stop Qassam rockets. At least five of the rockets fell in Israel on Thursday, the Israeli Army said, as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni escorted diplomats through the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, which has borne the brunt of the Qassams.
Late Thursday, Khader Habib, a spokesman for the militant group Islamic Jihad, said the main Palestinian factions had agreed to offer to stop firing rockets into Israel in exchange for a cessation of all attacks on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He said that the offer applied only to rockets and that it would take effect only after Israel ceased attacks.
Explaining the suicide bomber’s action, Fathiya al-Najar, her oldest daughter, said that her son had been killed by Israelis, that her mother’s house had been destroyed, and that another grandson was in a wheelchair with an amputated leg. “She and I went to the mosque,” she told reporters. “We were looking for martyrdom.”
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