Palestinian grandmother blew herself up???

"'I don't want anything, only to die a martyr."

A Palestinian grandmother blew herself up in the Gaza Strip, lightly wounding three Israeli soldiers, in the first suicide attack claimed by Hamas in almost two years.

The mother of nine and grandmother of 41 became the oldest Palestinian suicide bomber at the age of 57, approaching troops operating to curb daily rocket attacks, the army said.

"Troops saw a woman approaching them in a suspicious manner and identified her carrying an explosive device," a spokeswoman said of the incident in the northern town of Jabaliya.

"They then threw a stun grenade in her direction but she managed to blow herself up," the spokeswoman said, adding that three soldiers were lightly hurt.

Within minutes the armed wing of the Hamas claimed the bombing. This was the Islamist group's first suicide attack since January 2005, when a bomber wounded seven Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

"The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades claims the martyr operation carried out by Fatima Omar Mahmud al-Najar, aged 57, in the middle of a group of Zionist soldiers," an online statement said.

The bloody operation came two weeks after the radical faction threatened to resume suicide bombings in response to a botched Israeli shelling in the Gaza town of Beit Hanun that left 19 Palestinians, mostly women and children, dead.

Another seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the northern part of the volatile territory Thursday, as Gaza militants launched seven rockets into the Jewish state, one of which struck a house in a southern kibbutz.

Relatives said Najar had seven sons and two daughters, plus some 41 grandchildren, and that they were proud of her "martyrdom", which daughter Azhar said was a direct response to the Beit Hanun shelling.

"She did this operation in response to the Beit Hanun massacre. She was very moved by what happened," said Azhar, speaking from home in Jabaliya where relatives came to congratulate Najar's nearest and dearest.

Azhar also said her mother had taken part in a daring rescue operation, staged by Palestinian mothers and wives, who acted as human shields to free more than a dozen gunmen holed up in a Beit Hanun mosque on November 3.

Zuheir, Najar's 20-year-old son, told AFP from the family home: "We are really happy. It's a big operation. She told us last night that she would do a suicide operation. She prepared her clothes for that operation and we are proud.

"'I don't want anything, only to die a martyr." That's what she said."

All I can say is:

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.

Amen.

The meaning of Thanksgiving is so precious to me/us... Looking around the world at the tumultuous times, nothing rings more true than... THANKS!!! God bless you all...

Cross posted at The Minority Report