'My dream was to be a martyr'

A BADLY burned Palestinian woman was alternately defiant and tearful last night after Israeli soldiers caught her trying to enter Israel with 22 pounds of explosives hidden on her body.

The woman, who suffered serious burns on her hands, feet and neck in a kitchen explosion five months ago, had been granted permission to cross into Israel from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment when she raised the suspicion of soldiers at the Erez checkpoint.

Video released by the military showed 21-year-old Wafa al-Biss taking off articles of clothing on the orders of soldiers searching for explosives, and rubbing her disfigured neck with her burned hands and screaming. The military said she tried to blow up the explosives yesterday but failed and was not injured.

At the Shikma Prison in Israel's Negev Desert, where the Shin Bet security service allowed Israeli TV reporters to interview her, al-Biss said she was determined to carry out a suicide attack against Israel because of its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

"My dream was to be a martyr," she said, adding that she was recruited by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. "I believe in death."

Sitting calmly across from an Israeli TV interviewer, the young woman with large brown eyes and curly dark hair pulled back in a ponytail said her decision had nothing to do with her disfigurement, which might make her less desirable as a bride. "Don't think that because of how I look I wanted to carry out an attack," said al-Biss. "Since I was a little girl I wanted to carry out an attack."

However, her story grew more contradictory as the interview progressed. After more than an hour, she began to lose her composure and changed her story.

In a separate interview with foreign reporters, she asserted that she had undergone treatment at a Gaza hospital for her burns, where someone apparently planted the explosives on her body without her knowledge.

"I did not intend to carry out an attack," she said, at which point Israeli security officials told reporters she was lying. "I didn't kill anyone. Do you think they will forgive me? Do you think they will give me any mercy?" she asked. "I hope they show me mercy. I didn't kill anyone."

Israeli military spokeswoman Major Sharon Feingold expressed outrage that Palestinian militants used a humanitarian case as a suicide bomber.

"These terror organisations are not only the enemies of the Israelis, but also of the Palestinian people themselves, who suffer as a result of this abuse of the young, the sick, the wounded," she said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian gunmen yesterday killed an Israeli motorist in a West Bank ambush, escalating a wave of violence.

Palestinian officials condemned the violence, which also included the shooting dead of a Palestinian man by Israeli troops.

The growing tensions cast a cloud over a meeting set for tomorrow between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, where they are expected to discuss co-ordination for Israel's upcoming withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.