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Wafa al Bass

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Wafa al Bass (Wafa al-Biss; b. 1984) is a Palestinian Arab resident of northern Gaza and a student at Al Quds University who was permitted to enter Israel for the purpose of being treated at an Israeli hospital in 2005 for burns she experienced after a gas cooker had blown up while she was making dinner.[1][2] She wore a suicide bomb strapped to her legs which she planned to detonate at the hospital and attempted to explode the device after she was detained while trying to enter Israel via the Erez Crossing.[3][4]

Early life and injuries

Raised in the Jabalia refugee camp as one of 12 children, Al Bass described being beaten by her father and brothers.[5] After experiencing burns from a cooking gas explosion that caused wounds covering almost half her body, Al Bass was treated at Al-Shifa Hospital, where her wounds became infected; she was given permission to enter Israel to receive hospital treatment for severe burns at Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva.[6][7] In the months before her attempted suicide mission, her family sent a message of thanks to the staff at Soroka hospital for their "great efforts and wonderful, warm attitude" in treating her.[6]

Attempted suicide bombing

Her engagement was broken after the cooking gas explosion.[6] Her handler from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades told her that her injuries would mean that she would never find a husband or succeed in life. Her parents encouraged her on the path of martyrdom and she recorded a video about her planned bombing in her parents' home.[5] In terms of the decision of where to detonate her explosive device, she was given the choice of a bus, a café or the hospital where she had been treated; she selected the hospital.[8] Her mother helped her get dressed and fixed her clothing after she put on the explosive device when heading out to a hospital appointment as part of a suicide mission.[5] She was targeting the outpatient clinic where she was being treated and said that she was hoping to kill 30 to 50 people, including children.[6]

On 20 June 2005, during one of her return visits, guards at the crossing became suspicious given that she was walking awkwardly, and discovered that under her traditional black robes she had strapped a 22-pound (10.0 kg) bomb to her legs.[7][9][10][11][12] She unsuccessfully attempted to then detonate the bomb, and when questioned, she said that she hoped to explode the bomb after arriving at the hospital where she had been treated.[13] She said "I am a member of Al Aqsa Brigades .. I believe in death."[14]

Release

She was sentenced for 12 years, but was released early in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.[7]

Upon release from prison she immediately attained further notoriety by urging Gazans to "take another Shalit" every year until all convicted Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons were freed.[2][15] As schoolchildren gathered at her home in northern Gaza to welcome her home, she told them, "I hope you will walk the same path we took and God willing, we will see some of you as martyrs."[16][17]

In 2011, Leland Vittert interviewed al Bass in Gaza for Fox News and replayed for her the video of her arrest at the border crossing in possession of a bomb. He asked her for her thoughts on seeing it again, expecting her to have changed her perspective. Al Bass responded that she was very proud of what she did had done, that she wanted to carry out a suicide bombing and looked forward to re-experience the opportunity she had to taste and smell paradise.[8][13]

Video

References

  1. ↑ Female Suicide Bombers
  2. 1 2 Goldberg, Jeffrey (October 18, 2011). "In One Paragraph, the Horror of the Middle East". The Atlantic.
  3. ↑ "A suicide bombing attack planned to be carried out in Israel". Terrorism-info.org.il. Archived from the original on 2011-10-22. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
  4. ↑ Rosemarie Skaine (2006). Female suicide bombers. McFarland. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-7864-2615-7. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 Marquardt-Bigman, Petra. "The Palestine of Wafa al-Biss", The Jerusalem Post, October 23, 2011. Accessed June 29, 2026. "Al-Biss also gave a chilling account of the cynical tactics used by her terrorist mentor, who reminded her that due to the disfigurement caused by her accident, nobody would ever marry her and that she therefore had no future. Indeed, her fiancée had already broken off their engagement, and according to the information al-Biss revealed when she was interrogated by Israeli security forces, even her parents eventually encouraged her 'martyrdom'. A 'farewell' video clip was taped in her home with the consent of her parents, and when it was time to put on her explosive-laden garments that weighed 10 kg (22 lbs), her own mother helped her dress and fixed a broken zipper."
  6. 1 2 3 4 Fletcher, Martin. "Descent from patient to suicide bomber; NBC News' Martin Fletcher reports on a seemingly ordinary Palestinian woman who attempted to become a suicide bomber.", NBC News, 23 June 2005. Accessed 29 June 2026. "Only two months earlier, Wafa's family wrote a thank-you note on her behalf to Soroka hospital in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba. They thanked doctors and nurses, especially Igor Resnik and nurse Mazal, for their 'great efforts and wonderful, warm attitude' in helping Wafa survive burns over 45 percent of her body. A gas cooker had blown up while she was making dinner, burning her everywhere except her face. Dr. Yuval Krieger, the Israeli doctor who treated Wafa, said she arrived from the Palestinian hospital of Shifa with infected burn wounds. The treatment she had was not good and her burns were dressed incorrectly."
  7. 1 2 3 Israel Denial; Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, & The Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State
  8. 1 2 "Failed suicide bomber's story exemplifies struggle for peace in Gaza", News Nation via YouTube, October 13, 2025. Accessed December 18, 2025. Per transcript, via translator: "[Vittert at 1:45] Wafa had been given three target options by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades: a bus, a café or the hospital that treated her and saved her life. [al Bass at 3:07] - 'I'm very proud of this. I hope time will come and I will live again the moments in which I was tasting and smelling paradise.'"
  9. ↑ "Israel Crackdown Ahead Of Summit - CBS News". CBS News. June 21, 2005.
  10. ↑ "Israel Offers Two More Towns". CBS News. 2009-02-11. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
  11. ↑ "Women Weapons". The New York Sun. June 29, 2005. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
  12. ↑ "Attack by female suicide bomber thwarted at Erez crossing". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 20 June 2005.
  13. 1 2 al-Biss, Wafa (9 June 2012). "Failed Suicide Bomber Hopes for Another Chance to Kill" (YouTube video). Happening Now (Interview). Interviewed by Leland Vittert. Gaza Strip: Fox News. Retrieved 19 January 2021. (minute 1:15) "... ready to sacrifice her own life to kill Israelis at a local hospital. She knew the hospital well, as doctors there once treated her."
  14. ↑ Terrorism in Perspective
  15. ↑ "Israeli Soldier Swapped for Hundreds of Palestinians". The New York Times. October 18, 2011.
  16. ↑ "Would-be bomber tells Gaza kids to be like her". Ynetnews. 1995-06-20. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
  17. ↑ "Freed Wafa al-Biss tells Gaza children to follow her example". Ahram Online. 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
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