Here we go again: Female Suicide Bomber kills both Israelis and Palestinians

Suicide Bomber Strikes at Israel-Gaza Border
Palestinian Attacker and Four Israelis Killed
By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip (Jan. 14) -- A Palestinian mother of two blew herself up at the main border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip Wednesday, killing four Israelis and wounding seven people.

The militant Islamic group Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed joint responsibility for the suicide bombing, which they said was to avenge Israel's killing of Palestinians, and vowed to escalate attacks.

Smiling as she cradled an assault rifle in a videotape she left, Reem Al-Reyashi, 22, professed love for her children, a 3-1/2-year-old boy and a girl of 1-1/2 years, before an attack she said was meant to turn her body into ''deadly shrapnel.''

The Hamas militant blew herself up in a terminal where Palestinian laborers from the fenced-in Strip were being put through Israeli security checks before entering a nearby industrial complex.

''Glass and black smoke flew everywhere. Arabs were screaming, Jews were screaming,'' said a Palestinian witness, her clothes stained with the blood of others.

The army said the dead included three soldiers and one Israeli civilian. Four Palestinians were among the wounded.

It was the first suicide attack since a December 25 bombing killed four Israelis near Tel Aviv, and raised further doubts about prospects for reviving a U.S.-backed peace ''road map.''

Israel has often responded to such attacks with air strikes. But its only move for now was to close the industrial zone for a few days, keeping 3,000 Palestinian laborers away from jobs.

Hamas, the main group behind a campaign of suicide bombings, said it sent a woman for the first time because of growing Israeli security ''obstacles'' facing its male bombers. Smaller militant groups have deployed female bombers several times.

'RESISTANCE WILL ESCALATE'

''Resistance will escalate against this enemy until they leave our land,'' Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said in Gaza.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie did not condemn the bombing as he has after attacks in Israel. Instead he said Israel's military crackdown ''does not help to achieve quiet'' and called for a mutual cease-fire.

Witnesses said the bomber was faking a limp when she set off a metal detector operated by Israeli security personnel at Erez.

Moments before, a Palestinian woman laborer standing in the queue had offered Reyashi a helping hand. ''She looked at her, she thanked her and told her to back off,'' one witness said.

''She managed to hoodwink the soldiers by saying she had a metal surgical implant,'' Israeli Brigadier-General Gadi Shamni said. ''A female soldier was sent for to search her. She used this opportunity to enter the building...and blow herself up.''

Wearing a green Hamas sash and headband, Reyashi, from a middle-class merchant family in Gaza, said in a farewell video she had dreamed since she was 13 of ''becoming a martyr.''

She concluded by saying: ''God gave me two children and I loved them so much. Only God knew how much I loved them.''

Israel has accused Palestinians of glorifying suicide bombers and international human rights organizations have called the bombings crimes against humanity. Palestinians say Israel's military crackdown provokes such violence.

Outside Reyashi's home, her husband of five years sat crying. A relative said the family had not known of her plans.

Al-Aqsa, an offshoot of the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Qurie, also said it was responsible for killing an Israeli settler, a father of five, in a roadside ambush near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank Tuesday.

Yassin said last Friday that Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, would consider a ''temporary peace'' if a Palestinian state was created in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Despite that, Hamas officials have denied suggestions by Israeli security officials that a lull in Hamas bombings indicated the group had declared a halt to such attacks.

 

There's some serious stuff in this article.

"Yassin said last Friday that Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, would consider a ''temporary peace'' if a Palestinian state was created in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip."

What the hell is a temporary peace? This proves my point that a palestinian state can't exist until Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbullah, and any other Palestinian extremist groups are gone.

My roadmap:
1. Declare war on Hamas and all the groups listed above.
2. Kick all of the jewish settlers out of gaza and west bank.
3. Set up a Palestinian state with a shared jerusalem capital. If there are any attacks on Israel, they will be re-occupied.

Honestly, what are the possible ways this damn thing could end?
1. Peace (2 states)
2. Peace (1 state, land given back to egypt and jordan)
3. War (Palestinians expelled)
4. War (Israelis killed)