What are Feeds?
Dangerous Shift in Tactics
November 28, 2006
The use of women in terrorist activity is a growing sense of concern for the Israeli Defense Force and an evident shift in tactics for the various terrorist organizations residing in Israel. Terrorists are now recruiting grandmothers to carry out their deadly homicide bombing attacks in order to avoid detection by the IDF.
According to an IDF spokesperson, 57 year old Fatma A-Najar, approached a security force operating near Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. When this grandmother of 40 grandchildren acted suspiciously and continued approaching the security force while refusing to heed commands to stop, the IDF lobbed a stun grenade at the woman. Before being incapacitated, Fatma A-Najar managed to detonate the device killing herself and lightly wounding three soldiers.
According to family testimony, Fatma A-Najar had also been one of the hundreds of women who surrounded the home of terrorist leader, Mahammadweil Baroud on the night of November 18 in order to protect him from an imminent Israeli Air Force attack. The IDF routinely warns civilians when an air strike is planned, yet instead of avoiding the area, many women and children surrounded the leader’s house and Qassam rocket launching operation forcing the Israelis to cancel the mission. Mahammadweil Baroud is the leader of the Popular Resistance Committee and has claimed responsibility for hundreds of Qassam attacks on Israeli neighborhoods.
In early November the Israeli Security Agency, Shin Bet, discovered an entire group of women who were responsible for organizing shooting attacks around Ramallah and setting up explosives laboratories. This particular women’s group was also responsible for carrying financial funds from Syria into Israel to fund Islamic Jihad terrorist activities.
Unfortunately Israel is all too familiar with young male homicide bombers blowing themselves up in densely populated areas causing as much bloodshed as possible, but now with grandmothers joining the cause Israel will be forced to scrutinize every individual no matter what their gender or age. The growing rise in women terrorists makes a person ask what their motivation is. Young men are promised immediate entrance into "paradise" surrounded by dozens of virgins, but what reason would a 57 year old grandmother of 40 grandchildren have for detonating herself?
Najar's son Jihad said. "She brought great honor to us and the homeland. She connected all of us to the struggle." If her "act of sacrifice," Jihad’s words describing his mother’s murderous act, inspires a family of 40 grandchildren to do the same, then the IDF will soon have a major problem with ultra fundamentalist youth out to avenge the death of their departed mothers and grandmothers.
Israel is indeed concerned about the rise in female participation in terror organizations and the IDF is currently training new recruits to continue to stay vigilant against any person who demonstrates a lack of cooperation with authorities without respect of age or gender. This scrutiny in turn makes it much more difficult at checkpoints and border crossings for the law abiding Arab Israelis to carry out their daily activities.
This particular bombing could have been much worse, but the IDF security forces recognized the threat and thwarted the attack inside the Gaza Strip. Najar was unable to get past the security barrier into the Israeli population. The security barrier continues to save Israeli lives and thwart terrorist activities in Israel’s largest cities. In a public address on November 15 Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, Ramadan Shalah, announced that the security barrier was the major deterrent to terrorist activity in Israel. He said the situation would be entirely different in Israel if his operatives could only get past the security barrier. This is from the group that has claimed the most Israeli lives in the past six years due to homicide bombers.
Although the security barrier is discouraged by many of the world's national leaders, it is producing the desired affect. Weekly arrests and thwarted attacks continue to signal to the Israeli leadership that the security barrier is a needed part of their defenses against lethal homicide bombers, whether male or female.
According to an IDF spokesperson, 57 year old Fatma A-Najar, approached a security force operating near Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. When this grandmother of 40 grandchildren acted suspiciously and continued approaching the security force while refusing to heed commands to stop, the IDF lobbed a stun grenade at the woman. Before being incapacitated, Fatma A-Najar managed to detonate the device killing herself and lightly wounding three soldiers.
According to family testimony, Fatma A-Najar had also been one of the hundreds of women who surrounded the home of terrorist leader, Mahammadweil Baroud on the night of November 18 in order to protect him from an imminent Israeli Air Force attack. The IDF routinely warns civilians when an air strike is planned, yet instead of avoiding the area, many women and children surrounded the leader’s house and Qassam rocket launching operation forcing the Israelis to cancel the mission. Mahammadweil Baroud is the leader of the Popular Resistance Committee and has claimed responsibility for hundreds of Qassam attacks on Israeli neighborhoods.
In early November the Israeli Security Agency, Shin Bet, discovered an entire group of women who were responsible for organizing shooting attacks around Ramallah and setting up explosives laboratories. This particular women’s group was also responsible for carrying financial funds from Syria into Israel to fund Islamic Jihad terrorist activities.
Unfortunately Israel is all too familiar with young male homicide bombers blowing themselves up in densely populated areas causing as much bloodshed as possible, but now with grandmothers joining the cause Israel will be forced to scrutinize every individual no matter what their gender or age. The growing rise in women terrorists makes a person ask what their motivation is. Young men are promised immediate entrance into "paradise" surrounded by dozens of virgins, but what reason would a 57 year old grandmother of 40 grandchildren have for detonating herself?
Najar's son Jihad said. "She brought great honor to us and the homeland. She connected all of us to the struggle." If her "act of sacrifice," Jihad’s words describing his mother’s murderous act, inspires a family of 40 grandchildren to do the same, then the IDF will soon have a major problem with ultra fundamentalist youth out to avenge the death of their departed mothers and grandmothers.
Israel is indeed concerned about the rise in female participation in terror organizations and the IDF is currently training new recruits to continue to stay vigilant against any person who demonstrates a lack of cooperation with authorities without respect of age or gender. This scrutiny in turn makes it much more difficult at checkpoints and border crossings for the law abiding Arab Israelis to carry out their daily activities.
This particular bombing could have been much worse, but the IDF security forces recognized the threat and thwarted the attack inside the Gaza Strip. Najar was unable to get past the security barrier into the Israeli population. The security barrier continues to save Israeli lives and thwart terrorist activities in Israel’s largest cities. In a public address on November 15 Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, Ramadan Shalah, announced that the security barrier was the major deterrent to terrorist activity in Israel. He said the situation would be entirely different in Israel if his operatives could only get past the security barrier. This is from the group that has claimed the most Israeli lives in the past six years due to homicide bombers.
Although the security barrier is discouraged by many of the world's national leaders, it is producing the desired affect. Weekly arrests and thwarted attacks continue to signal to the Israeli leadership that the security barrier is a needed part of their defenses against lethal homicide bombers, whether male or female.
