SUICIDE MOTHERS

Women await suicide call (Daily Telegraph UK)

In these violent times, Um Ahmed takes steps to ensure her safety, strapping on a suicide belt before going to bed at night. The mother-of-eight is one of a group of 20 women who, according to the local al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander, is prepared to die for her cause, should there be an unexpected Israeli assault on Abasa, near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

Ahmed, and women like her, are changing the face of terrorism by declaring their willingness to die for the cause. The first recorded suicide bomber involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a woman, 28-year-old Wafa Idris, from the Am'ari Refugee Camp in Ramallah. Idris detonated a 10kg bomb in Jerusalem, killing herself, an 81-year-old Israeli man and injuring more than 100 others. The attack occurred on January 27, 2002.