Woman unwilling Palestinian martyr

Wafa Idris, who has been called the first Palestinian woman suicide bomber, apparently had no intention of killing herself in the blast that rocked Jerusalem on January 27, a senior Israeli police official said yesterday.

"It is almost certain the bomb the young woman was carrying in a bag was supposed to be given to a man who was supposed to hide it or blow himself up with it," said the official.

Israeli police now suspect that Idris was prevented from transporting the bomb to its destination, possibly because of the many police in downtown Jerusalem at the time.

The explosion occurred as she was rushing out of a shoe store, and investigators believe that was when she accidentally set off the bomb's sensitive trigger mechanism.