MOTHER OF SUICIDE BOMBER PROUD OF "HERO" SON

“Even though I am suffering, my suicide bomber son was a hero”. (London Times)
Within hours of his death Hammad was a fully accessorised “martyr”, complete with farewell video, posters and heroic slogans. Sitting on the few cushions remaining in the small hilltop house his mother Samya, 42, complied with photographers who clamoured for her to pose with a poster, but the house was unadorned with militant propaganda.

“He was a hero and I am proud of Samir but I have suffered from his loss,” she said of her eldest son. “I have seen their soldiers killing our children and destroying our home, making everything bad, so how can I see them sympathetically or kindly?”

The family described Hammad as intelligent and frustrated by lack of opportunities, notably being forced to drop his studies with al-Quds (Jerusalem) Open University because his family had no money. His uncle, Imad, blamed his becoming a bomber on “psychological pressure” caused by the conflict.