this just makes me sick to my stomach

[Briar Rose 7457]

12 yeasr old homicide bomber

Last Update: 24/03/2004 17:06

Soldiers catch Palestinian boy, 12, wearing explosive belt

By Haaretz Service



Israel Defense Forces paratroopers caught a Palestinian boy, aged 12, wearing an explosive belt at the Hawara roadblock south of Nablus in the West Bank on Wednesday afternoon. Sappers used a remote-controlled robot to remove the belt from the boy's body and then safely detonated it in a controlled explosion.




The boy has been taken in for questioning.

The army believes that the boy was meant to detonate the belt near the soldiers or near the nearby army base.

"This is another horrific example of how the Palestinians use their own children to spread terror against Israelis," David Baker, an official in the prime minister's office, said in response.

"These children are turned into human time-bombs for the purpose of spreading as much terror against Israelis as possible," Baker said.

Just last week, soldiers found an explosive charge on a cart pushed by a 10-year-old Palestinian boy at the same roadblock.

The soldiers released the boy after it transpired that he did not know what was in the bag he was carrying through the barricade.

Abdallah Quran, of the Balata refugee camp east of Nablus, makes a living by transferring bags from one side of the roadblock to the other. He told the soldiers that every day after school, where he attends the fourth grade, he takes his cart to the Hawara barricade to help invalids and women transfer their bags in his cart, while they wait in line for the security checks.

One of the bags on Quran's cart looked suspicious to the soldiers. When they examined it, they found a 7-10 kilogram explosive charge.

People were evacuated from the barricade, and sappers arrived to detonate the bomb. All the Palestinians who had been in line and around the barricade were detained for questioning. Quran was questioned for several hours before being released.

According to defense establishment figures, since the beginning of the intifada, there have been 29 Palestinians under the age of 18 who carried out suicide attacks, and 22 others under 18 who carried out "sacrificial attacks" - in which they opened fire and were killed - in the territories. Forty others under 18 were arrested on suspicion of intending to carry out attacks.

 

[Keli]

Why isn't the UN doing anything about this? I have a feeling that if we were recruiting children to help in our war on terror that the UN would be all over us for it (as well they should, I am in no way advocating the use of children!).