Would-be suicide bomber held

2005-06-20 21:47

Jerusalem - A young Palestinian woman hiding explosives in her underwear, tried to blow herself up on Monday at the Erez crossing between northern Gaza and Israel, said an Israeli army spokesperson.

Major Sharon Feingold said: "A young Palestinian woman who was given permission to go to an Israeli hospital for treatment for burns, arrived at Erez checkpoint, wearing some kind of underpants containing more than 10kg of explosives."

As she tried to pass through the sprawling checkpoint, troops noticed something unusual and ordered her to stop.

Feingold said: "She then tried to press the button detonator, but it did not work for some reason", adding that the explosives were removed and she was taken for interrogation.

Woman 'recruited by al-Aqsa Martyrs' brigades'

Feingold said: "We have noticed increasing attempts to use young women and children to carry out attacks in the last few weeks.

"These organisations are doing everything possible to destroy the relative quiet and dissolve peace efforts."

Palestinian security sources said the 21-year-old woman was recruited by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' brigades, a radical offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement.

Following her arrest, the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel organisation called on "Palestinian society and its leaders to strongly condemn the use of patients for violent purposes".

The group emphasised that both Israelis and Palestinians had an obligation to protect the wounded and sick under the fourth Geneva convention.

- SAPA