(Communicated by Israel security sources)

Israel security forces operating overnight in the city of Nablus arrested two teenage girls who were planning to carry out a suicide bombing, together with their fathers.

In recent days, it came to the knowledge of security forces that the Tanzim infrastructure in Nablus was operating to carry out a suicide bombing using a female bomber.  On June 15, 2004 they arrested a Tanzim operative, Ruchi Ghassan Rashid Marmash, 20 years old, of Nablus, who was involved in the attempted suicide attack.

During questioning, he revealed that the potential suicide bomber was a 15 year old female, resident of Nablus, and that the recruiter and dispatcher of the young female bomber was a young 14 and a half year old female, also from Nablus. Both of the minors were located and detained for questioning, together with their fathers, by security forces.

The 15 year old girl, born in April 1989, was supposed to carry out the suicide bombing. The recruiter of the bomber , aged 14.5, born in October 1989, was charged with finding a female bomber, recruiting the bomber and connecting her with terrorists from the Tanzim infrastructure. 

The 15 year old suicide bomber admitted to having joined the Tanzim and agreeing to carry out a suicide bombing, after having been recruited by her 14 and a half year old friend. Later on she admitted that she had changed her mind out of fear.

The minor recruiter admitted that Ruchi Marmesh had asked her to locagte a female suicide bomber, and that she had recruited her 15 year old friend. She claimed not to have known the location of the attack. The recruiter connected the suicide bomber with Tanzim terrorists in Nablus: Ruchi Marmesh, who was arrested by security forces, Magdi Mari and Ismail Haraz, senior Tanzim terrorists wanted by security forces, who are directed and supported by the headquarters of Hizbullah in Lebanon.

The recruiter also told investigators that the suicide bomber was asked a number of times if she wanted to carry out the attack. In the beginning she accepted the offer, but later changed her mind. Furthermore, the recruiter admitted to investigators that she was in contact with a Jew through the Internet, and claimed that her plan was to persuade him to come to Nablus, convert to Islam, and carry out a suicide bombing.