Fatma Omar An-Najar
{{Short description|Palestinian suicide bomber}}
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Fatma Omar Mahmoud An-Najar ({{Langx|ar|فاطمة عمر محمود النجار|Fāṭimah ʻUmar Maḥmūd al-Najjār}}; died November 23, 2006) was a Palestinian grandmother and suicide bomber who lived in the Gaza Strip. On November 23, 2006, she detonated explosives she was wearing on a belt, and injured several Israeli soldiers near Beit Lahia and the Jabalia Camp in northern Gaza. Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing. Her family said she was 64.
Life
An-Najar was a mother of nine children and a grandmother of between 35 and 38 people. During the First Intifada she had sheltered Hamas militants and the Israeli army had demolished her home. Her husband had died in 2005 and a grandson had been shot dead in 2002. At the time of her death, she was 57 according to Hamas and her family said she was 64.{{cite news |last1=Farrell |first1=Stephen |title=Grandmother blows herself up in Gaza |work=The Times|id={{Gale|IF502868618}} |date=24 November 2006 |location=London |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=McCarthy |first1=Rory |title=Woman, 64, blows herself up in attack on Israeli troops |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/nov/24/israel |access-date=16 February 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=24 November 2006}}
Death
An-Najar blew herself up on 23 November 2006, becoming the oldest out of the one hundred suicide bombers from the previous six years. Her motivation was Israeli attacks on the nearby Jabalia Camp in the Gaza Strip.{{cite book |last1=Halwani |first1=R. |last2=Kapitan |first2=T. |title=The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Philosophical Essays on Self-Determination, Terrorism and the One-State Solution |date=2007 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-59971-0 |page=152 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6luHDAAAQBAJ |accessdate=11 July 2020 |language=en}} She approached Israeli soldiers near the town of Beit Lahia and detonated the explosives on her belt when they threw stun grenades at her.{{cite news |last1=Ellingwood |first1=Ken |title=Grandmother targets Israeli troops as a suicide bomber |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-nov-24-fg-mideast24-story.html |accessdate=12 July 2020 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=24 November 2006 |archive-date=12 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712033545/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-nov-24-fg-mideast24-story.html |url-status=live }} Several soldiers were reported to have been wounded. In her martyrdom video, An-Najar said she made the attack in the name of Hamas and its military leader Mohammed Deif.{{cite news |title=Matriarch who lost grandson in conflict with Israelis turns into suicide bomber |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/23/africa/ME_GEN_Grandmother_Bomber.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061124050037/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/23/africa/ME_GEN_Grandmother_Bomber.php |archive-date=24 November 2006 |accessdate=12 July 2020 |work=International Herald Tribune |agency=Associated Press |date=23 November 2006 |language=en}}
References
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Category:Female suicide bombers
Category:Suicide bombers in Israel
Category:Palestinian female murderers
Category:Palestinian militants
Category:People from Gaza Governorate