The
same name of Heba was given late Monday by the Islamic Jihad group
when it made the first claim to Afula bombing.
Israeli
daily Yediot Aharonot said the attack is a joint operation by
al-Aqsa Brigades and the Islamic Jihad, both are resistance groups
fighting against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
A
senior Islamic Jihad official said Monday Heba was a student of
English at Al-Quds University in Jenin, only 15 kilometers (nine
miles) from Afula.
Heba
has done what her brother failed to do, her neighbor Maisaa Al-Tubassi
told IslamOnline.net over the phone.
“While
the son has failed to achieve the dream of martyrdom, the daughter
actually has succeeded in doing it,” she said referring to Heba and
her brother Bakr who was abducted by the Israeli occupation forces a
year and a half ago on charges of preparing an attack inside Israel.
“He
is expected to get a life in imprison sentence,” said the neighbor.
She
stressed that the whole village was dumbfounded by the news Heba had
carried out A Afula operation, because “no one could imagine that
this pigeon-livered girl could carry out an anti-Israel attack.”
“Heba’s
family could not believe it, because she left at noon heading for her
university,” Maisaa recalled.
Heba,
a member of the Fatah movement, had 3 sisters and 4 brothers,
villagers said.
In
a related development, the Israeli occupation army abducted earlier
Tuesday Heba’s father, Azem, along with her mother and brothers.
Israeli
special forces broke into the house, abducted the family and ransacked
the place, witnesses said.
The
Israeli soldiers even confiscated some of Heba’s belonging, they
added.
Heba
is the fifth female Palestinian to carry out an attack against an
Israeli target since the beginning of Intifada in September 2000.
The
first was university student Wafaa Idris, who blew herself up to kill
one Israeli and wounded 140 others.
Resistance
To Continue
In
the meanwhile, the Islamic resistance movement Hamas vowed that
bombing attacks against Israeli targets would continue, “as long as
occupation of Palestinian areas persists.”
“The
large escalation of attacks against Palestinians consecutively led to
escalation of resistance,” Ismail Hanya, a Hamas leader, told
IslamOnline.net.
Asked
on the “roadmap” plan for peace in the Middle East, the Hamas
leader said that it is rather an attempt to liquidate the Intifada,
particularly that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had clearly
announced his rejection to it.
Palestinians
already accepted the “roadmap”, envisioning the establishment of a
Palestinian state by 2003, but Israel made 15 reservations to it.
On
the meeting between Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and
Sharon, Hanya said that “resistance bets on no such meetings, but
rather on the end of Israel’s occupation and aggression.”
