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Palestinian Mother Kills Four in Bombing

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 January 2004, 06:00 CST

A Palestinian mother of two blew herself up Wednesday at the main crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, killing three Israeli soldiers and a private guard and wounding seven other people.

It was believed to be the first time the Islamic militant group Hamas has sent a female suicide bomber, possibly signaling a change in tactics aimed at piercing Israeli security, which mainly focuses on male suspects.

Meanwhile, an Israeli soldier was charged for the April shooting of a British activist who was protesting Israeli operations in Gaza. The 22-year-old activist, Tom Hurndall, died overnight in a London hospital after nine months in a vegetative state, and an Israeli military official said the charges against the soldier could be elevated to manslaughter.

After Wednesday's attack, Israel ordered the closure for several days of the Erez Crossing. Thousands of Palestinian laborers pass each day through a network of fences and security checks at the crossing to go to jobs at an industrial area - one of the few trickles of cash into Gaza.

The dead were all Israeli, including three soldiers and a private guard, military sources said. The army said four of the wounded were Palestinian.

The bomber, identified as Gaza resident Reem Raiyshi, 22, told soldiers at the crossing point that she would set off a metal detector because she had an implant from surgery to repair a broken leg. She was then ushered to a special room for a security search, said Maj. Sharon Feingold, a military spokeswoman.

A video made before the bombing shows Raiyshi wearing a traditional hijab head covering, holding an assault rifle and standing before two green Hamas flags as she declares her lifelong dream of becoming a suicide bomber.

"I always wanted to be the first woman to carry out a martyr attack, where parts of my body can fly all over. That is the only wish I can ask God for," she said with a smile.

Raiyshi's brother-in-law, Yusef Awad, said she had an 18-month-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. Raiyshi and her husband got in a fight with the rest of the family two months ago and had not been seen since, Awad said.

Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin said the use of a woman bomber was unique, but added that holy war "is an obligation of all Muslims, men and women."

Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, issued a joint claim of responsibility.

Islamic Jihad, the other main Islamic fundamentalist group leading attacks against Israelis, and the secular Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade have used women for suicide attacks in the past. But Hamas, the largest group, has until now stayed away from the tactic.

A Palestinian woman who identified herself only as Amena said she was waiting to get her permit renewed at the Erez crossing when four other Palestinian women entered an office ahead of her and the bomb went off.

"I heard soldiers screaming. The blast was very strong and I saw one of the women, the last one who went into the room, was bleeding from her legs," she said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia declined to condemn the attack, saying that continued Israeli attacks and restrictions on the Palestinians are leading "to more escalation on both sides."

Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the crossing would be closed to Palestinians for the next few days. "We are not going to close it (completely) but no one can blame us for making more stringent checks," he said.

The Gaza Strip is surrounded by an Israeli security barrier. In the past three years of fighting, only one of the more than 100 suicide bombers has infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip. But there have been several attacks at the Erez crossing.

Roughly 6,000 Palestinians have to enter Erez to get to jobs at an industrial zone filled with Israeli, Palestinian and jointly owned factories - a last vestige of cooperation between the two peoples.

The suicide bombing came on the heels of a West Bank ambush late Tuesday in which Palestinian gunmen killed a Jewish settler in a car at the entrance to the Talmon settlement near the West Bank city of Ramallah. The 28-year-old victim was the father of five, including triplets born two months ago.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility.

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian gunmen in a firefight along the Gaza-Egypt border, the army said. The army said the soldiers were returning fire.

Hurndall, the British activist with the International Solidarity Movement, was shot in the forehead on April 11 while photographing the work of his fellow activists in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp. Witnesses said he had tried to help children out of the path of an Israeli tank when the shot was fired.

On Monday, Israel's military prosecutor filed a six-count indictment against an Israeli soldier that included a clause for intent to cause injury to Hurndall. The soldier was not named.

Asked whether the soldier would face murder charges, Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner replied, "We are definitely inquiring into this case."

The raging violence is one of the main causes of a serious economic crisis in the Palestinian Authority, which was forced to borrow from banks to pay the salaries of its 125,000 employees. The authority may not be able to pay salaries in February at all, Economy Minister Maher al-Masri told The Associated Press.

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