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A child suicide bomber is a suicide bomber under the age of 18. Children or teenagers as suicide bombers have been used by Muslim terrorist organizations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Chechnya and Africa.
In the al-Aqsa intifada, Palestinian terrorists exploit young people in the aid of terror, mainly as human shields and bomb-transporters but also as suicide bombers and combatants. Although there were many witnesses and photos documenting uses of children, the issue was not reported by the world media and human rights group until the widely televised incident when the Palestinian teenager Hussam Abdo was disarmed in front of the TV cameras . Palestinian supporters ignore claims about incitement and indoctrination of "Shuada" (Martyrdom operations or just martyrdom in Arabic) and "Jihad" in children by Palestinian Authority and religious clerics in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian supporters argue that most of the claims of human shields concern cases of children willingly entering areas where armed conflict is in progress, contrary to the definition of "human shield", and that the pictures that Israelis point out actually back up their claims. They also point out that it has been well documented by human rights groups that the IDF uses true human shields (people forced at gunpoint into dangerous areas) when knocking on the doors of houses and other structures containing gunmen as well as when conveying written or verbal messages to such individuals.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claims that many of them are paid by terrorist groups such as Hamas or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades to throw pipe bombs at Israeli soldiers, often resulting in severe injuries and handicaps inflicted upon the children through premature detonation. This claim was substantiated by the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas). The Jordanian newspaper Alrai (citing an interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper Alzaman on 20 June 2002), quotes Abu Mazen, who spoke of how Palestinian children are being paid to carry out attacks:
Palestinians say that the role that money pays in this is highly doubtful given the large amount of stone throwing at tanks by children on their own.
The data collected by the IDF regarding the involvement of Palestinian children in suicide bombings is grim, according to this data:
The IDF does not, however, point out that since the beginning of the conflict:
On March 24, after capturing a bomb in the bag of 11-year-old Abedullah Quran, possibly placed without his knowledge, Hussam Abdo, a 16-year old Palestinian youth (initially he claimed he was 14) was captured in a checkpoint near Nablus wearing an explosive belt. The young boy was paid by the Tanzim militia to detonate himself onto the checkpoint. IDF soldiers, manning the checkpoint, were suspicious of him and told him to stay away from people. Later, an EOD team arrived and by using a police-sapper robot, removed] the explosive belt from him. . These incidents were both widely condemned in the Palestinian press, and in the Arab world in general.
The latest incidents have caused a controversy in the Palestinian society, with most expressing their dismay at the phenomenon. Although there was no official condemnation from the Palestinian Authority or actions against the people organizing the youthful attackers, numerous publicists objected to using children to commit attacks, partly because it is damaging the perception of Palestinian struggle by presenting Palestinians as ruthless murderers, and partly because it is an exploitation of the innocent. However, incitement of children to participate in "martyrdom operations" against Israelis is still continuing in the PA.
Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, strongly condemned the act of using children to commit attacks.
Despite the harsh condemnation and internal controversy, Palestinian terror groups such as Hamas, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and Islamic Jihad, continue to recruit young children as suicide bombers. On March 31, 2004, Raed Khuweir blamed Palestinian Islamic Jihad for trying to "lure" his younger brother, aged 15, to commit a suicide attack. He said:
Khuweir explained that his younger brother was brainwashed to do it by an Islamic Jihad cleric and demanded that the Palestinian Authority investigate the incident and arrest those responsible for it. Serveral weeks after the incident, due to inaction of the Palestinian Authority, the IDF arrested Fatah's activists from Nablus, believed to be the masterminds behind the children suicide bomber pheonmena.
The youngest Palestinian suicide bomber was 16 year old Issa Bdeir, a high school student from the village of Al Doha, who shocked his friends and family when he blew himself up in a park in Rishon LeZion, killing a teenage boy and an elderly man.
On May 29, 2004, the New York Times that the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades are using children to recruit their own classmates as suicide bombers through peer pressure and other techniques. One child, Nasser Awartani, 15 of Nablus has succeeded in recruiting four of his classmates, one of whom, Hussam Abdo, is still alive. The rest died as a result of their suicide bombings.
On June 16, 2004, two girls - aged 14 and 15 were arrest by the IDF for plotting a suicide bombing. According to IDF statement, the two minors were recurited by Tanzim (Fatah's armed wing) activists, guided by Hizbullah. On July 3, the Israeli security forces have thrawted a suicide bombing which should have been carried by a 16-years-old Muataz Takhsin Karini. Karini and two of his operators were arrested, while a 12 kg explosive belt was detonated safely by Israeli EOD crew. On June 5, IDF forces detonated two explosive belts concealed in schoolbags. On July 14 the Shin Bet arrested in Kfar Maskha a suicide bomber. The bomber was identified as 17-year-old Ahmed Bushkar from Nablus.
On August 7, 2004, a 15 year-old Palestinian was killed while trying to launch an anti-tank missile on Rafiah Yam settlement in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Defence Forces returned fire and hit the missile, and he was apparently was killed by the explosion. Later that day, in an attempt to sabotage the Israeli Gaza Strip Barrier, one Palestinian was killed and a 16-year-old teen was arrested. An IED explosive charge was found nearby.
On September 23, 2004, a day before Yom Kippur, the Shin Bet and the Israeli police captured a 15-year-old suicide bomber and a 7 kg explosive belt in Dir-Hana village in the Western Galilee. The 15-year-old was a part of joint terrorist cell of Tanzim and Islamic Jihad from Yamon village near Jenin. The four were Palestinians who worked illegaly in Israel. The 15-year-old teenager was paid 1000 Shekels in order to blow himself up in Afula. ,
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