Cease-fire, Palestinian style:
'Would I have sent my son to his death?'
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
The family of the 15-year-old boy who was arrested last week by IDF soldiers when he tried to carry out an attack at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus has condemned those who sent him as "criminals."
Mohammed al-Nadi, a ninth grader from Askar refugee camp near Nablus, was carrying pipe bombs and a lighter when he approached the soldiers at the checkpoint.
The IDF and the family have accused Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, of dispatching the boy on a suicide mission. However, Mohammed Subuh, a senior official with the Palestinian Authority's Information Minister, claimed that Israel was behind the incident, staging the near-attack in attempt to undermine PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas's talks with US President George W. Bush.
This is the fifteenth incident in the past two months in which Palestinian youths under the age of 18 have attempted to detonate explosive devices at checkpoints or smuggle weapons via the crossings.
Leaders of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Nablus have denied that the group was using minors for launching attacks on the IDF. But several sources in the city, including the boy's family and PA security officials, insist that the group was behind the botched attack.
They said members of the group in Balta refugee camp, which is also in the Nablus area, had recruited Mohammed after persuading him that he would be rewarded in heaven for killing Jews. They also promised to support his family after he becomes a shahid (martyr).
cont. at jpost.com |
