Israel says the Tanzim wing of Yassir Arafat’s Fatah movement was behind the bid to turn a 14-year-old Palestinian boy into a suicide bomber.
Soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus in the West Bank stopped Husam Muhammad ‘Abdu for a routine check and discovered he was wearing a suicide bomber’s belt.
Senior officers say the boy told soldiers he intended blowing himself up at the checkpost.
He said he was told by Palestinian adults that he would be greeted in heaven by virgins and it would be his one chance for sexual relations.
Once the device was discovered sappers directed a robot to the boy and which gave him scissors to cut off the belt.
It was then detonated in a controlled explosion.
A week earlier a 10-year-old boy, apparently unwittingly, was caught as he carried a 22-pound explosive in a backpack through the same checkpoint.