A Palestinian teenager who decided against blowing himself up in Jerusalem caused panic in a West Bank security office when he went for help, officials said Monday. Palestinian security officials said the young man appeared at their Ramallah office late last week and stripped off his jacket — revealing an explosives vest with a detonation switch at his neck. Fearing they were about to be blown up, five security officers scattered in all directions, shouting at the youth, who looked about 14 but was actually 18 years old. It turned out that the he wanted someone to disarm the explosives.
| "Holy shit! I mean Allahu Akbar!" |
A short while later, an explosives expert arrived to defuse the bomb vest.
| One thing you can always find on short notice in Paleostine is an explosives expert... |
The young man, whose name was not released, told the officers he was recruited by the Islamic Jihad group in Jenin and was supposed to blow himself up in Jerusalem. On the way, though, he had second thoughts. "I kept thinking of myself, of my family, and to be honest — I don't want to be flying meat die," one of the officers quoted the man as saying. Security officials said if he had been sent back to Jenin, in the northern West Bank, he would have been arrested by the Israeli military, so the Palestinians sent him to a lockup in Jericho instead. |