11-year-old boy used as human bomb
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH, Jerusalem Post
Mar. 15, 2004

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Fatah Tanzim activists in Nablus attempted to use an 11-year-old boy to smuggle a bomb through an IDF roadblock on Monday, and tried to detonate the bomb when soldiers stopped him.
Earlier in the day, Shin Bet agents had alerted troops in the area of plans by a bomber to leave Nablus.
The men gave the boy a bag containing a seven-to-10 kilogram bomb stuffed with bolts. They promised him a large sum of money if he would carry it through the roadblock and hand it to a woman waiting on the other side.
«A military policewoman lifted the bag, which was heavy, and placed it on the table. The soldier noticed the boy was uneasy and, when she questioned him, he told her the bag didn’t belong to him and he had been asked to take it through,» Lt.-Col. Guy, a Paratroop Brigade battalion commander, told The Jerusalem Post.

«She immediately alerted officers, and with the other soldiers, distanced everyone from the area.
«When the boy’s dispatchers saw he was being detained, they dialed the cellphone inside the bag meant to detonate the bomb in an attempt, but it failed top go off,» he said.
The boy was detained for questioning, and sappers were called in to dispose of the bomb.
Guy said the boy will be freed after questioning. «We’re not going to do anything with a boy like that, an innocent kid trying to earn his daily bread. Someone apparently promised him money for getting the bomb across.»
Guy said it is common for terrorist groups to use children or women as couriers for arms and explosives.
«We have caught a 39-year-old mother of seven… with an explosive belt under her clothes,» he said, adding that the woman was on her way into Israel from the West Bank when she was caught.
Since the outbreak of violence, terrorists have dispatched 29 suicide bombers younger than 18, officials said.
Since 2001, more than 40 other minors who were involved in planning suicide bombings have been arrested by security forces. Since May 2001, 22 shootings and bombings were perpetrated by minors.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, soldiers shot a Palestinian who threw a fire bomb at troops near Zabade, south of Jenin. Shots were also fired at soldiers in Nablus.
Security forces arrested four fugitives in Zawata, north of Nablus, and another south of Bethlehem.
In the Gaza Strip, an anti-tank rocket was fired at a crowded bus as it left Netzarim. Passengers said the rocket entered one side and exited the other side. No one was wounded. An anti-tank rocket was also fired at an IDF post near Neveh Dekalim.
Shots were fired at a convoy entering Netzarim, at an IDF post on the Karni-Netzarim road, and at workers building the security fence near Moshav Katif.
Security forces arrested a fugitive in his home on the outskirts of Rafah. Palestinians claimed that, during the arrest, soldiers shot dead the man’s brother.