Use of child suicide bombers by Palestinian militant groups

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Moshe Constantine Hassan Al-Silverburg (talk | contribs) at 14:15, 1 June 2006 (I will stop reverting when you stop inserting bias and unsourced passages, and deleting relevant and sourced ones). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 14:15, 1 June 2006 by Moshe Constantine Hassan Al-Silverburg (talk | contribs) (I will stop reverting when you stop inserting bias and unsourced passages, and deleting relevant and sourced ones)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|June 2005|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.
Child suicide bombers are minors who commit or try to commit suicide attacks. The practice of using children and teenagers as suicide bombers was prevalent during the al-Aqsa Intifada , during which Palestinian armed groups have launched hundreds of suicide attacks on Israeli cities, although comparatively few bombers are minors.

Overview

File:Dying to Kill by Mia Bloom cover.jpg

A Palestinian girl wears toy explosive belt on the bookcover of Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror by Mia Bloom.

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and especially during the al-Aqsa Intifada, controversy has arisen over the participation of minors in Palestinian militant and terrorist actions. Some Palestinian militant and terrorist organizations have sought to recruit children to attack Israeli civilians and soldiers; in some instances these groups have also recruited minors as suicide bombers to attack Israeli targets, both military and civilian. The youngest successful Palestinian suicide bomber was 16-year-old Issa Bdeir, a high school student from the village of Al Doha, who blew himself up in a park in Rishon LeZion, killing a teenage boy and an elderly man.

While there have been at least nine documented suicide attacks involving minors between October 2000 and March 2004, and an Israeli military report details 229 cases of minors involved in militant activity, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, in its 2004 Global Report on the Use of Child Soldiers reported that "there was no evidence of systematic recruitment of children by Palestinian armed groups", also noting that this remains a small fraction of the problem in other conflict zones such as Africa, where there are an estimated 20,000 children involved in active combat roles in Sudan alone. Human Rights Watch, in its report entitled "Child Soldier Use", also reported that "there was no evidence that the Palestinian Authority (PA) recruited or used child soldiers."

According to the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, in the al-Aqsa intifada Palestinian militant groups have used children as "messengers and couriers, and in some cases as fighters and suicide bombers in attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians". Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have all been implicated in involving children in this way, though the issue was only brought to world attention after the widely televised incident when the mentally handicapped Palestinian teenager Hussam Abdo was disarmed after television cameras had been called in . Some commentators have claimed that the Palestinian Authority, religious clerics, and the Palestinian education system incite violence by glorifying suicide bombing and violence through the concepts of "Shahadah" (the Islamic Creed) and "Jihad". However, a special report commissioned by the US Department of State and conducted by the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information found that "The overall orientation of the curriculum is peaceful despite the harsh and violent realities on the ground. It does not openly incite against Israel and the Jews. It does not openly incite hatred and violence. Religious and political tolerance is emphasized in a good number of textbooks and in multiple contexts." .

Other commentators have called suicide bombers "an explosion of decades of despair", claiming that they are more likely motivated by "living under military siege, and because so many of their fellow Palestinians have been maimed and killed" than Islamic fanatacism and "dreaming of being rewarded with 72 virgins in Paradise". Some of them argue that the Israeli policy of pursuing reprisals against the families of the bombers (usually via the demolition of their homes) calls into question whether the youths are capable of making an informed choice regarding the consequences of their actions.

A number of groups, including the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the current President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas, claim that many children are paid by militant groups such as Hamas or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades to throw pipe bombs at Israeli soldiers, often resulting in severe injuries and handicaps to the children through premature detonation. Between September 2000 and March 2004, "Palestinian non-governmental groups documented the deaths of 30 children actively involved in organized military action... Most of the deaths occurred as a result of accidents with explosives or during armed clashes with Israeli troops". According to Israeli Security Forces, there have been 229 cases of minors involved in militant activity. Some Palestinians and commentators have claimed that the role that money plays in this is highly doubtful given the large amount of stone throwing at tanks by children on their own.

Incidents since September 2000 and prior to 2004

On April 24, 2002, three children aged 12, 13 and 14 were killed while attempting to infilitate Netzarim settlement in the Gaza Strip. The three children - Ismail Abu Nada (12), Anwar Ill Azi Mustafa Hamarna (13) and Yosef Basem Yosef Zakut (14) - were activists of the local Islamic youth movement of the Sheikh Raduan neighbourhood in Gaza. No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Israeli intelligence sources attributed it to Hamas. Hamas, however, denied the charge and condemned the usage of children in military operations, and asked them to remember that their lives are precious, and should not be sacrificed.

According to the Israel Defense Forces:

Since the beginning of violence in the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, 29 suicide attacks have been carried out by youth under the age of 18.
Since May 2001, 22 shootings attacks and attacks using explosive devices were carried out by youth under the age of 18.
Since the beginning of 2001, more than 40 youths under the age of 18 were involved in attempted suicide bombings that were thwarted (of them, three during 2004).

Incidents in 2004

On March 24, 2004, one week after capturing a bomb in the bag of 12-year-old Abdullah Quran , possibly placed without his knowledge (some Palestinians have claimed the explosives were planted by Israelis), Hussam Abdo, a 16-year-old Palestinian (who initially claimed he was 14) was captured in a checkpoint near Nablus wearing an explosive belt. The young boy was paid by the Tanzim militia to detonate himself at the checkpoint. IDF soldiers manning the checkpoint were suspicious of him and told him to stay away from people. Later, an EOD team arrived and by using a police-sapper robot, removed the explosive belt from him. . These incidents were both widely condemned in the Palestinian press, and in the Arab world in general.

The latest incidents have caused controversy in the Palestinian society, with most expressing their dismay at the phenomenon. Although all major Palestinian groups have "publicly disavowed the use of children in military operations ... those stated policies have not always been implemented". However, the Israeli government still claims that the Palestinian Authority is inciting children to participate in militant operations and attacks, alleging that PA television broadcasts call on children to seek death, and that the PA condones posters of suicide bombers in the classrooms.

Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, strongly condemned the act of using children to commit attacks.

"Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned suicide bombings and other attacks against civilians by Palestinian armed groups as crimes against humanity. Using children to carry out or assist in armed attacks of any kind is an abomination. We call on the Palestinian leadership to publicly denounce these practices."

"Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs's Brigades, must put an immediate end to the use or involvement of any kind of children in armed activity."

Despite the harsh condemnation and internal controversy, Palestinian militant groups such as Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and Islamic Jihad, have recently used children as militants and suicide bombers. On March 31, 2004, Raed Khuweir blamed Islamic Jihad for attempting to recruit his younger brother, aged 15, to commit a suicide attack. He said:

"They crushed my brother. These are dubious people who tarnish the reputation of the resistance by making us look like barbarians who exploit children."

Khuweir claimed that his younger brother was "brainwashed" by an Islamic Jihad cleric and "call on the Palestinian Authority to investigate this affair and on Islamic Jihad to reveal who these people are that deceive children, so that they really belong to the group". Several weeks after the incident, the IDF arrested Fatah activists from Nablus, who believed to be behind other suicide bombings by children.

On May 29, 2004, The New York Times reported Israeli allegations that the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades were using children to recruit classmates as suicide bombers.

One child, Nasser Awartani, 15 of Nablus allegedly recruited four of his classmates, one of whom was claimed by the Shabak report on Awartani to be Hussam Abdo.

On June 16, 2004, two girls - aged 14 and 15 were arrested by the IDF for plotting a suicide bombing. According to an IDF statement, the two minors were recruited by activists from Tanzim (Fatah's armed wing), guided by Hezbollah. On July 3, the Israeli Security Forces thwarted a suicide bombing which was to have been carried out by 16-year-old Muataz Takhsin Karini. Karini and two of his operators were arrested, while a 12 kg explosive belt was detonated safely by an Israeli EOD crew. On June 5, IDF forces detonated two explosive belts concealed in schoolbags. On July 14 the Shin Bet arrested in Kfar Maskha a suicide bomber. The bomber was identified as 17-year-old Ahmed Bushkar from Nablus.

On August 7, 2004, a 15 year-old Palestinian was killed while trying to launch an anti-tank missile into Rafiah Yam settlement in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces returned fire and hit the missile, and he was apparently was killed by the explosion. Later that day, in an attempt to sabotage the Israeli Gaza Strip Barrier, one Palestinian was killed and a 16-year-old teen was arrested. An IED explosive charge was found nearby.

On September 23, 2004, a day before Yom Kippur, the Shin Bet and the Israel Police captured a 15-year-old suicide bomber and a 7 kg explosive belt in Dir-Hana village in the Western Galilee. The 15-year-old was a part of joint terrorist cell of Tanzim and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from Yamon village near Jenin. The four were Palestinians who worked illegally in Israel. The 15-year-old teenager was paid 1000 Shekels in order to blow himself up in Afula.

According to a Shabak report published on September 26, 2004 about 292 Palestinian minors have been involved in terrorism. ,(DOC, Hebrew)

As of the fourth quarter of 2004, Nablus still continued to be a center for the recruitment of child suicide bombers:

On September 27, 2004, a 15-year-old suspected suicide bomber was arrested in Nablus. . On October 28, Ayub Maaruf, a 16-years old Fatah suicide bomber, was arrested near Nablus along with his operator.

On November 1, 16-year-old Aamer Alfar blew himself in Tel Aviv's Carmel Market, killing 3 Israelis, in a suicide bombing that was claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Alfar's mother and father condemned what they saw as the exploitation of their son:

"God will curse those who recruited Amar. I had heard the stories about recruiting children in Nablus but I didn't think they were true... Yes, it is difficult here for everyone because of the occupation, and life in Nablus is intolerable, but children should not be exploited in this way."

On November 4, a 15-year-old suicide bomber was arrested in Nablus.

Incidents in 2005

On February 3, Mahmoud Tabouq, a 15- or 16 year-old Palestinian, was arrested at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus carrying a bag containing an explosive belt, an improvised gun, and 20 bullets. The belt was detonated safely by a Magav bomb squad.(Haaretz), (video)

On April 12, a 15-year Palestinian boy, identified as Hassan Hashash, was caught at Hawara checkpoint, hiding five pipe bombs under his coat. He tried to ignite them with a match when the soldiers apprehended him. Later he was disarmed, and sappers detonated the bombs safely. Family members of Hashash suggested that he deilberately carried bombs into an IDF checkpoint in order to be arrested and study for the "Bagrut" final exams in the Israeli jail. A week later, another Palestinian youth (aged 17) was caught carrying explosives in Beit Furik checkpoint.

On April 27 two Palestinian teenagers, both aged 15 (other souces cite their ages as 12 and 13), were arrested in a checkpoint near Jenin after 11 explosive charges were found on them. One teenager was recruited by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the second by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The two told interrogators that they had been acting as couriers for terrorists, but security forces suspect they planned to get close to the soldier and then detonate the charges.

On May 22, Iad Ladi, a 14- or 15-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber was arrested at a Hawara checkpoint near Nablus. This was the 14th time during April-May that a Palestinian child was arrested carrying bombs as a bomber or a courier. Two days later, another 15-year-old Palestinian teen, carrying two pipe bombs, was caught at the same checkpoint. On June 15, The Israeli press reported that the Shabak arrested a Palestinian terrorist cell in Nablus during the previous month. The cell included eight members, four of whom were child suicide bombers. The cell was involved in May child terrorist attacks and was on the verge of committing another suicide bombing attack, using the four minors. According to the Shin Bet, the cell was directed and funded by the Fatah's Tanzim branch and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

On July 6, a Palestinian teenager caught carrying explosives near Baqa al-Sharkiya, two days after another Palestinian 16-year-old was caught with explosives at the Hawara checkpoint.

On October 11, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was arrested by IDF forces. He told the soldiers he was forced to agree to commit a suicide bombing when two terrorists from Fatah's Tanzim faction threatened to murder him by spreading a leaflet accusing him of collabration unless he agreed. They took pictures of him with a gun and the Qur'an and forced him to write his own will.

Incidents in 2006

On 17 April, 2006, Sami Hammad, a 21-year-old Palestinian carried out suicide attack in Tel Aviv killing 10 and wounding 70 people. There have been unconfirmed reports (and as of April 17, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority has been stating) that Hammad was only sixteen-years-old.