Israeli Arab woman accused of suicide bomb plot

An Israeli court has indicted an Israeli Arab woman for planning a suicide bomb attack, the Justice Ministry said today.

Suad Abu Hamad, 25, from Nazareth in Israel’s Galilee, was planning twin suicide bombings with a member of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement from the West Bank town of Tulkarem, according to the indictment.

This follows the arrest of seven members of an Israeli Arab family, suspected of helping a Palestinian suicide bomber blow up a bus in Israel’s north on August 4, killing nine, raising concerns among Israeli Jews that the Arab minority was shifting from support of Palestinian statehood to active participation in terrorism.

The indictment presented today said that upon hearing that her friend, Balal Tamum, was planning on carrying out a suicide attack, Abu Hamad requested he also help her carry out an attack.

Tamum’s superior, Ziad Daas, then ordered him to carry out a suicide bombing together with Abu Hamad.

That plan was thwarted by Israeli forces on when troops arrested Tamum and killed Daas while storming his hide-out in Tulkarem.

According to the indictment, Tamum was to call Abu Hamad and tell her, “the wedding is tomorrow,” signalling that the attack was to be carried out the next day.

Israel’s Arab citizens make up about 20% of the nation’s population. They remained in their homes in 1948 when Israel was created, while hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians fled or were expelled during the two-year war that followed the declaration.