GAZA - A would-be Palestinian suicide bomber freed by Israel in the prisoner swap for soldier Gilad Schalit told cheering schoolchildren in the Gaza Strip the day after her release on Wednesday she hoped they would follow her example.
"I hope you will walk the same path we took and God willing, we will see some of you as martyrs," Wafa al-Biss told dozens of children who came to her home in the northern Gaza Strip.
RELATED:Netanyahu: I'm happy Gilad Schalit is returning to routine Kuntar urges Palestinians to capture Israeli soldiers Haniyeh awards Palestinian prisoners' families $2,000 Biss was traveling to Beersheba's Soroka hospital for medical treatment in 2005 when Israeli soldiers at the Erez border crossing noticed she was walking strangely. They found 10 kilograms (22 lbs) of explosives had been sewn into her underwear.
A member of al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, Biss was sentenced to a
12-year term for planning to blow herself up.
After she spoke, the children cheered and waved Palestinian flags and
chanted: "We will give souls and blood to redeem the prisoners. We will
give souls and blood for you, Palestine."
Biss said she had planned to blow herself up at the checkpoint but her detonator malfunctioned.
"Unfortunately, the button did not work at the last minute before I was to be martyred," Biss told Reuters.
She said she had not yet adjusted to her freedom and arose early on Wednesday for prison roll call.
"This morning I woke up in my room, wore my scarf and stood up awaiting
the line-up time before I realized I was home and not in jail," she
said.
Once she settles back to her routine, Biss said she plans to complete
university psychology studies but added that she remained defiant in the
face of Israeli warnings to act against those who return to militancy.
"We will pursue our struggle and (Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu)
knows that. Arrests will not deter us from our strong battles and
confrontation in the face of Zionist arrogance in the land of
Palestine," she said.
Biss was one of 477 Palestinians freed Tuesday in the first stage of an
exchange with Hamas that ended Schalit's five years of captivity.
Another 550 Palestinians will be freed in the second stage later this
year.