A young female lawyer chose to become the next human bomb; kills 19 in Haifa

A Palestinian woman wrapped in explosives blew herself up yesterday inside a seaside restaurant popular with both Arabs and Jews, killing 19 bystanders, including four children.
The lunchtime attack ended nearly a month of relative calm. One of the deadliest in three years of renewed violence, the bombing came on the Jewish Sabbath and a day before the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The blast inside the Maxim restaurant went off shortly after 2 p.m., shattering windows and leaving the white walls cracked and charred. Most of the ceiling collapsed, with lights and wires dangling. Broken plates, glass, chairs and human remains covered the floor of the one-story building. Outside, the body of the restaurant's security guard lay broken and bloody on the steps.

Police said the bomber and 19 bystanders were killed, including four Arabs. The four dead children included a 1-year-old and two others ages 5 and 6, emergency officials said.

The group Islamic Jihad said it organized the bombing. It identified the bomber as Hanadi Jaradat, 27, a law school graduate from the West Bank town of Jenin. Her brother and a cousin, an Islamic Jihad member, were killed in an Israeli military raid in June, the group said.

The explosion brought to 103 the number of Palestinian suicide bombings in the past three years of fighting. At least 432 persons have been killed in the attacks. The suicide bomber whose attack in Haifa left 19 people dead did not fit the usual profile of an unemployed young man throwing in his lot with the terror groups. Hanadi Jaradat, was a professional woman who was due to qualify as a lawyer in a few weeks, with every chance of a successful career. She left her home in the West Bank city of lenin at 7.30 a.m. local time on Saturday without breathing a word about her intentions.

Instead of going to the law firm where she was a trainee, she went to Haifa, where she set off her bomb in a crowded restaurant. Among the dead were four Israeli children and three Arabs. Jaradat carried out the attack for Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian terrorist group. Her family said her prime motive was revenge.

In June Israeli forces killed her cousin, Salih, and her brother, Fadi (23), in Jenin. Both were accused of being Islamic Jihad operatives. "Do not expect her not to be influenced by those killings," said her sister, Bisan (21). "She saw her brother slaughtered like a sheep." Jaradat had done well enough at school to win a place at Yarmuk University in neighbouring Jordan. She had always been a devout Muslim, but after her brother’s death she completed the task of memorising every verse of the Koran.