Hamas releases suicide bomber’s farewell video

In a video-taped farewell speech released tonight, a Palestinian university student said he was one of 12 suicide bombers groomed by the Islamic militant group Hamas to carry out attacks in Israel.

Hamas’ military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, said in an accompanying leaflet that the man in the video, identified as Dia Tawil from the West Bank town of Ramallah, blew himself up on Tuesday next to an Israeli bus in Jerusalem.

The leaflet said Tawil was a student at Bir Zeit, the leading university in the West Bank.

In Tuesday’s attack, the assailant was killed and more than two dozen Israelis were injured in the attack.

Hamas has claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks, including today’s suicide attaclk that killed the assailant and two Israeli teenagers.

The video showed a clean-shaven Palestinian man in his 20s sitting behind a rickety table. Three assault rifles and a book were placed on the table, and the wall behind him was decorated with green Islamic flags.

"I am the 12th of the martyrs the Izzedine al Qassam Brigades have prepared to turn their bodies and their bones into shrapnel that will kill the Zionist occupiers," the young man said, reading from a text.

At the end of his brief speech, he sang a Koranic verse.