Israel says a 21-year-old Palestinian woman arrested carrying explosives at a Gaza checkpoint planned to blow herself up in an Israeli hospital.Presumably if she has managed to blow herself up with a bunch of Jews she would not be pleading for mercy.
Wafa al-Bis was stopped on her way on her way to Beersheba hospital where she was to receive treatment for burns.
Ms Bis said on Israeli TV she wanted to be a suicide bomber but then later told foreign journalists the explosives were planted on her without her knowledge.
The incident comes amid a rise in violence despite a four-month truce. (Someone please explain what a truce means according to the BBC.)
The Israeli military said Ms Bis was stopped by suspicious soldiers at the Erez crossing point between Gaza and Israel.
The army said she had tried to blow herself up there but the explosives did not detonate.
Israeli officials said Ms Bis, who comes from the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, was burnt in a cooking accident five months ago, and had received treatment on humanitarian grounds in the Beersheba hospital.
They said she was making another trip for follow-up treatment on Monday, but planned to blow herself up instead.
In an interview shown on Israeli television, Ms Bis said her 'dream was to be a martyr'.
She said she was recruited by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - an off-shoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction.
Ms Bis also said she had been angry over allegations that Israeli guards had ripped out pages of the Koran at a prison in northern Israel, claims Israel denies.
'What angered me and the Palestinian people is the abuse of the Koran,' she said. 'Should we sit in silence with our hands tied?'
Later, she pleaded for mercy because she 'didn't kill anyone'.
Incidentally, where does the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades get their money from? Could it possibly be from the PA - from the millions coming from Europe and the US? As far as I can tell, no one from the PA has ever declared the Al Aqsa terror group illegal - which sounds to me like they are still on the payroll. Probably "policemen."
Terrorist commander in West Bank says he's going to be a policeman in Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's security forces