NABLUS, West Bank – The Israeli army destroyed the home of a teenage suicide bomber Tuesday despite his mother’s public and impassioned criticism of the group that sent her son on the deadly mission.
Israeli military officials acknowledged the woman’s grief, but insisted the policy of demolishing bombers’ houses is necessary to deter more attacks. The militants who sent the teenager said they would try to rebuild the family’s home.
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Tests on Yasser Arafat showed problems with his digestion, but the Palestinian leader has recovered sufficiently to undergo examinations that could not have been done when he was first rushed to Paris, an aide said Tuesday. Nevertheless, there was no public information about the cause of the 75-year-old’s dramatic deterioration in health.
Arafat, who has been ill for three weeks, took a turn for the worse Oct. 27, collapsing and briefly losing consciousness. He is being treated in France. |
After the demolition, the bomber’s mother, Samira Abdullah, backed off her criticism of her sons’ handlers, saying her anger had subsided and praising the teenager as a hero.
The about-face underscored the complexity of Palestinian feelings over suicide missions – a mixture of support for attacks on Israel, unease with the growing use of teenage bombers, fear of crossing militants and a sense of dread over harsh Israeli reprisals.
On Monday, Abdullah’s son, 16-year-old Eli Amer Alfar, blew himself up in an open-air market in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis and wounding more than 30 others.
The victims were identified as Shmuel Levy, 65, a retired engineer who immigrated to Israel from Bulgaria in 1989; Leah Levine, a 67-year-old Holocaust survivor and folk dancing teacher; and Tatiana Ackerman, 32, a Russian immigrant who was survived by a husband and 12-year-old daughter.
In what has become a familiar scene, Israeli troops on Tuesday razed the home of Alfar’s family in the Askar refugee camp near Nablus in the West Bank. Alfar’s family of 12, including his parents and six siblings, had removed their belongings ahead of the demolition.
After the attack, his parents lashed out at the militants who recruited him.
“It’s immoral to send someone so young,” said Abdullah, 45. “They should have sent an adult who understands the meaning of his deeds.”
By Tuesday, however, Abdullah backed off, saying she understood the militants’ motives.
“My son is a hero and a tough guy,” she said. “It’s true he was young. But he would have done this in another year or two anyway.”
Over the past three years, the army has demolished more than 612 homes of Palestinian militants involved in attacks on Israelis, according to the Israeli human rights group B’tselem. It said 3,900 people were left homeless.
Monday’s attack was the 117th suicide bombing since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000. In all, 494 Israelis have been killed in the attacks.
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