The men behind the suicide bombers
Every death is the product of a well-oiled killing machine. Suzanne
Goldenberg completes her investigation
Suzanne Goldenberg
Tuesday June 11 2002
The Guardian
They are manufactured out of fertiliser, sugar, nails and bolts in
bedroom laboratories in the refugee camps and towns of the West Bank,
are highly unstable, and cost almost nothing to make. But Israeli
security officials call them smart bombs because they have a human
guidance system - the suicide bomber - and an even more powerful
intelligence directing the mission from a distance.
"This is the most accurate missile. The bomber can pick exactly where
to stand in a restaurant before he blows himself up," says
Major-General Eival Gilady, the Israeli army's chief of strategic
planning.
The willingness of Palestinians to serve as human bombs is a powerful
social phenomenon, but none of the 56 suicide bombings of the past 20
months were solo operations. All were the products of armed
Palestinian organisations, working in secret and with varying degrees
of killing capacity.
The main purveyor of suicide bombs to Israeli cities is the Izzadin
al-Qassem Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist group, Hamas, which
operates in extreme secrecy. The political leadership of Hamas claims
ignorance of the military wing, but Israeli security officials say the
two branches are intertwined. Hamas has carried out 20 of the suicide
bombings of this uprising. Its smaller rival, Islamic Jihad, has
claimed 11.
The newest recruits to this deadly doctrine are the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a
military offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, which has claimed
14 suicide attacks since the beginning of 2002. The front has claimed
two, and some are of uncertain provenance.
Hamas is extraordinarily frank about its reasons for promoting the
cult of death, which it says is partly religious but primarily
military. "Hamas uses these tactics and means of struggle because it
lacks F-16s, Apaches, tanks and missiles, and so we use any means that
we have," says Abdel Aziz Rantissi, the Hamas leader in Gaza. "It is
not just for paradise, or the virgins [the legendary reward for
martyrs], but because we are under occupation and are weak."
The purveyors of suicide bombs believe the wave of attacks will, in
time, force Israel to ends its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza,
just as the annual loss of 25 soldiers in Lebanon brought about the
army's withdrawal two years ago.
That is why the suicide missions are aimed at killing as many as
possible - women, babies, children and the elderly - and in sowing
terror across Israeli cities, making it impossible for people to lead
normal lives.
"This kind of operation really hits the Israelis where it hurts," says
Anwar Ayam, the brother of a suicide bomber from Tulkarem,and an
activist in Islamic Jihad who is wanted by Israel.
"It will destroy their economy. It causes more casualties than any
other type of operation. It will destroy their social life. They are
scared and nervous, and it will force them to leave the country
because they are afraid."
His father Omar adds: "To put it simply, we love martyrdom, they love
life."
Israel believes the bombers are recruited and indoctrinated through
religious schools run by Hamas and by informal study sessions at local
mosques, led by firebrand preachers. While the imams of the local
mosques are appointed by the Palestinian Authority - and so are almost
never followers of their opponents in Hamas - religious figures
operating on the fringes of the mosques often preach a far more
inflammatory message.
They spread the word to young, highly religious men who often sleep at
the mosque for a night or two each week. They also produce audio
cassettes which are sold at the mosques and at private religious
schools.
The friends and families of suicide bombers say they killed themselves
as an act of absolute faith: martyrdom, not suicide. "According to
Islam, he will be married to 70 virgins and he will not be dead. He
will be alive with God," says a friend of the first bomber of this
intifada, Nabil Arir. "It is an honour to be able to blow yourself up
this way," says the friend, an activist of Islamic Jihad, who says his
name is Mohammed.
The notion of 70 virgins as a reward for the martyr is drawn from the
Hadith, the words and deeds of the prophet Mohammed.
Much of the popular support for suicide bombings comes from the idea
of paradise - the just reward for someone who dies for God and for
country. The Koranic verse extolling the sacrifice of martyrs, and
saying they will be rewarded, has been traditionally recited at
funerals and engraved on tombstones - long before the emergence of the
suicide bombers.
The association of Palestinian religious scholars gave its sanction to
"martyrdom operations" last year - though it offered no description of
paradise. It said suicide attacks, though not specifically bombings,
were a legitimate part of jihad, or a just war, because they "destroy
the enemy and put fear in the hearts of the enemy, provoke the enemy,
shake the foundations of its establishment and make it think of
leaving Palestine. It will reduce the numbers of Jewish immigrants to
Palestine, and it will make them [Israel] suffer financially."
But the mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh, has said
there is no religious sanction for suicide attacks, and the leading
cleric at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Mohammed Syed Tantawi, ruled
that attacks aimed at women and children - and not just soldiers -
could not be considered the true acts of a martyr.
Selection process
During the first wave of suicide bombings against Israel from 1993 to
1998, and in the first months of this uprising, the bombers were
carefully selected.
Operatives from Hamas and Islamic Jihad would keep an eye on the young
men spending time at local mosques and investigate them. Did they pray
regularly? Were they emotionally stable? Did they have financial
troubles? How strong was their faith?
Once contact was made, the recruit would be slowly drawn into the
organisation's military network, but the preparation for the actual
attack was long and arduous.
In the old days the bombers disappeared from their homes for up to a
month before the attack for indoctrination sessions, watching videos
of previous bombings. At times they were taken to cemeteries and told
to lie in a grave for several hours to overcome their fear of death.
Such vetting continues, to guard against infiltration by informers for
Israel's security services, and also to make sure the bomber suffers
no change of heart. "He must have full commitment and conviction that
earthly life does not mean anything any more. He has to lose all
attach ments for property, money and family," says Ali, an Islamic
Jihad militant from Ramallah, who has been involved in organising
suicide missions. "By the end of it all we can read him like a book."
Shehade Salah, a leader of the Izzadin al-Qassem Brigades from Gaza,
told the Islam Online website last month that the handlers also
investigated the family of the bomber. Did he obey his parents, and
would his death bring financial ruin to the family? He said they would
not recruit only sons, and sought out young people whose attacks would
inspire others.
Ali claims the recruiters are scrupulous in turning away those whose
motives would "taint" a mission, such as people in debt, or with a
history of mental instability - those seeking a glorious exit to an
ignominious life.
But many of the other requirements from the old days have disappeared,
and religious indoctrination is no longer central to the preparation
of the bombers - especially for secular groups such as the Al-Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine. Most of the bombers remained at home until hours before
their deadly missions. They were already primed to kill.
Apart from Dareen Abu Eishi, the first verified woman suicide bomber,
who offered her services to Hamas and Islamic Jihad before being
recruited by Al-Aqsa, there have been three bombers who switched
political allegiances to carry out bombing attacks.
That suggests the recruitment of would-be bombers has become a much
more haphazard affair, especially for Al-Aqsa and Islamic Jihad, who
have dispatched waves of bombers, at times with only a minimum of
preparation. Jihad Jarar, a 17-year-old would-be bomber arrested by
Israeli police in the northern town of Afula last year, said his
handlers in Islamic Jihad simply showed him the explosive, and told
him: "Press on the red button once and the bomb will go off," before
sending him on his way.
Of the bombers investigated by the Guardian, there was only one
instance where the family suggested their son had been brainwashed by
his controllers, in this case Islamic Jihad. Ahmed Darraghmeh, a high
school student from a well-off family in the town of Tubas, south of
Jenin, blew himself up outside a kibbutz last October, killing a
security guard.
A skinny 17-year-old, he was a timid sort. His family says he was
afraid of the dark, and he spent hours locked in his bedroom with his
home computer and received extra maths coaching.
"He was not a man. He was a child," says his uncle, Raouf. "The boy
was weak physically, he was so thin. Someone manipulated him. He was
too young, and it is not a decision he could have made by himself."
In another attack, an Israeli security source claimed a bomb carried
by Daoud Abu Sway from Artas village, near Bethlehem, had been
detonated by someone else. Abu Sway wore an explosive belt fitted with
a second detonator: a mobile phone whose ring would set off the
bomb. "He was ready to die, but somebody decided for him," the
security source said.
Despite persistent reports in the Israeli media of the coercion or
brainwashing of the suicide bombers, the security source said this was
the only occasion in this uprising where a handler - not the bomber -
pushed the button. Israeli press reports have also said the bombers
were drugged or drunk, or were fatally ill with hepatitis or Aids. But
Jehuda Hiss, the director of Israel's Institute of Forensic Medicine
which runs extensive tests on the remains of suicide bombers, says
they are fully lucid at the moment of death.
"No alcohol, and no drugs known to us," he says. "We test them for
cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, and so on. They are
motivated by some psychological motive prior to the suicide attack."
Financial incentives
There are other compulsions. The suicide bomber is glorified long
past his death, with the dead bombers staring out of posters
plastered across the West Bank and Gaza, and their deeds extolled in
graffiti emblazoned across their houses. There is also a supremely
practical element; the families of the bombers receive $25,000
(£17,000) from a Palestinian party aligned with and funded by
Saddam Hussein. Palestinians killed by other means receive only
$10,000, from the Arab Liberation Front. Saudi Arabia and Mr Arafat's
administration also pay for the families of bombers (and all
Palestinians killed in the uprising) to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.
The bombers can also count on discreet support from Hamas, whose
political leaders make regular visits to their homes in the months
after their attacks, and whose financial controllers keep the money
flowing into family bank accounts.
Such sums may have been in the back of Raed Barghouti's mind when he
disguised himself as an Orthodox Jew and blew himself up outside the
French school in Jerusalem last September, killing only himself. In
the last days of August he began writing out blank cheques for 15,000
shekels (£2,060), his younger brother Ramzi remembers. "I asked
him: 'You make 1,500 shekels a month. Where did you get the money?' He
said leave it to God."
The money did come, with 70,000 shekels funnelled into the family bank
accounts in the weeks after the attack. Ramzi used the cash to put
down a new patio and floor tiles in the house the brothers were
building together, to install window and door frames and to plaster
the walls, which are adorned in a crimson slogan: "We love the colour
of blood."
The planners of the suicide attacks work in distinct cells, operating
autonomously from towns and refugee camps in the West Bank. The
fragmented structure is a necessity: to guard against penetration by
informers and because Israel's siege of Palestinian towns has forced
militants to become self-reliant.
Although Hamas has a highly developed and well-guarded military
network, according to Israeli defence experts, Islamic Jihad and
Al-Aqsa are more ad hoc. The binding element of each cell is trust,
says a militant from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades: "We know each
other like brothers, and we trust each other like brothers, and our
leaders. We trust our leaders, and they trust us."
Within this close-knit circle the bomber is the outsider. "Suicide
bombers are a commodity that can be passed from hand to hand," says a
senior Israeli security official. "Say you are a terrorist cell in
Bethlehem and you convince someone, or someone comes to you, ready to
carry out a suicide attack. You have got a treasure, and you can trade
it with another cell - say in Ramallah - for money, or for weapons."
This bizarre commerce has quickened since February because of the glut
of recruits. After Israel's sweeping offensive in the West Bank it has
accelerated further, with would-be bombers offering themselves to a
succession of militant groups. "These days almost no attack begins and
ends up with the same organisation," says the security official.
But while the organisations responsible for the bombings are fluid,
one fact remains fixed: it takes a support team of several militants
to plan and execute a suicide attack.
Typically, each cell for a suicide bombing - or for other attacks on
Israel - includes a strategist who is linked to the higher tiers of
leadership and who controls finances, an explosives technician who
makes the bomb, a procurer for the belt or vest that will carry it, a
driver to deliver it, and other support staff. The bomber is reduced
to a delivery system, especially in Hamas operations.
But Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa plan their bombings around the local
knowledge of the suicide attacker, such as familiarity with a certain
neighbourhood in an Israeli town.
The devices themselves are primitive and cheap: constructed out of
fertiliser and sugar imbedded with metal fragments, and packed into an
20cm (8in) piece of plastic tubing. They are light enough - rarely
weighing more than 10kg (22lb) - and compact enough to be strapped to
the bombers' waists, still the most favoured delivery system.
In the Balata refugee camp adjacent to Nablus, militants from the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades boast that "even a five-year-old" can
construct a bomb. It costs about 30 shekels - less than £5 - to
buy the materials to make hundreds of them.
The only innovation since the last bombing wave in the mid-90s is the
use of nails, bolts and sharp metal fragments. These tiny missiles
kill up to a distance of 100 metres and have killed or maimed many
more Israelis than the actual explosives. "They hit like bullets,"
says Dr Hiss.
Detonation is just as simple. The tricky part is the planning:
selecting the general location for the attack and finding a route out
from the West Bank, whose cities and refugee camps are encircled by
Israeli armour, to the final destination. None of the attacks in this
wave of suicide bombings have originated from Gaza because
Palestinians living in the territory are hemmed in behind an
electronic fence.
In the best planned and most lethal suicide missions - those by Hamas
- a probe is sent out to locations for a potential attack several days
ahead, taking note of roadblocks along the way and timing the journey,
according to Israeli security officials. In the more haphazard
missions the probe is sent out only a few hours before the bombing.
Israel's invasion and reoccupation of the West Bank last April, and
its almost daily short-lived incursions into Palestinian towns since
then, has badly damaged the bombers' networks. The hardened
Palestinian commanders are in jail or dead.
But the iron fist of Ariel Sharon - the incursions into West Bank
towns and refugee camps by Israeli armour and helicopter gunships, the
mass arrests and lengthy curfews - has only increased the
determination of those who would embrace martyrdom.
The brutalisation of Palestinian and Israeli society continues, making
the prospects for a resolution of the conflict remote. In the refugee
camps and towns of the West Bank, the peeling posters of the suicide
bombers remain. The next suicide bomber sees them every day, and
despite the Israeli army offensives, the handlers are waiting for them
with the standard instructions: make for the largest crowd you can
find, women, children, old people and babies, and press the red
button.
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
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