Hanadi Tayseer Jaradat was supposed to become a fully-qualified lawyer this week. Instead, the 29-year-old from Jenin, on the West Bank, raised Middle East tensions to new heights when she killed herself and 19 others in Haifa, Israel.
Jaradat left home earlier than usual yesterday morning without telling her family where
she was going. Despite a closure imposed over the West Bank to prevent suicide attacks before the Yom Kippur holiday, she managed to slip into Israel and head for Haifa.
She walked up to a beachfront restaurant filled with Israeli Jews and Arabs and detonated the bomb strapped to her body.
Her family says she acted to avenge the deaths of her brother Fahdi and cousin Salah, Islamic Jihad militants who were shot dead by Israeli troops outside the family home in June. Jaradat had heard the shots and ran outside but was waved away by the soldiers.
The Israeli Army said at the time the pair were killed after they drew guns on the soldiers, who had come to arrest them.
Her brother Thaher, 15, said Jaradat had always been religious, fasting twice a week. After the killings, she fasted during daylight hours every day. She began reading the Koran.
Her family were shocked to hear she was responsible for the bombing, "but we are receiving congratulations from people", said Thaher.
"Why should we cry? It is like her wedding today, the happiest day for her."
- AGENCIES
Herald Feature: The Middle East
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