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]
Al Bass had been given permission by Israel to enter Israel to receive hospital treatment for severe burns at Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva. [5] On June 20, 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. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] 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. [10] She said "I am a member of Al Aqsa Brigades .. I believe in death." [11]
She was sentenced for 12 years, but was released early in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. [5]
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] [12] 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." [13] [14]
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. [10] [15]
(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."