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The Phenomenon of Palestinian Suicide Terrorism
accident or collateral damage. The death of civilians is clearly the intended
outcome of the attack. 31 Of course, there can be even cases when a suicide mission
can be selective, as when used for the targeted assassinations of specific people.
The “Samson model” as it is often called, 32 refers to an act of suicide which is at
once both pre-emptive and retaliatory and moreover the retaliatory part entails the
inflicting of greater punishment on others than that sustained by the person
committing the suicide (Arad, 2000, p. 4). This is why they do not include self
inflicted deaths that occur without any violence directed outwards, like hunger
strikes or cult suicides, even if they do act as a form of protest. 33 Also excluded are
the cases when the terrorist killed him or herself, but the suicide was not part of an
act of killing other people 34 or when the death of the perpetrator was not planned
or wished in advance, but resulted out of necessity in unexpected circumstances.
Unlike what happens in a “normal” suicide, the suicide terrorist’s plan is typically
prepared by others, not by the individual himself 35 and the suicide terrorist is “on
call” prior to the attack, often over a period of several weeks. 36 Defining a terror
attack as a “suicide bombing” depends as stressed above primarily on whether the
perpetrator is killed. In the event that his mission is incomplete, it is not a suicide
bombing. Another crucial element in this definition is that the weight lies upon the
certainty of the agent’s death and not the means used to carry out the attack 37
To define a suicide mission we have to signify that it is not simply an attack against
the enemy target in which the agent has no chance of escaping or saving himself or
herself. 38 There is a distinct difference between the readiness and the desire to
die. 39 This excludes the extreme risk missions, 40 but can include various forms of
attacks differing from self-explosion, in particular, to all and any other kind of
actions that do not contemplate whatsoever an escape plan. 41 Any successful attack
will necessarily result in the death of the suicide bomber during the detonation of
the bombing device at or near the target. It should be also noted that from a tactical
point of view, the group that planned a suicide mission will consider a premature
explosion (i.e. before the suicide bomber has reached the preselected target) a
success 42 and the suicide bomber will generally be awarded the “Shaheed”
(“martyr”) title, regardless of whether the device was detonated prematurely or not,
or whether the Israeli forces prevented a more severe damage.
Suicide operations entail very low cost and are cost-effective, 43 with the total price
of an operation averaging about one hundred and fifty dollars (Hassan, 2001, p.
39). This was the financial estimation of the “electrical components and chemical
supplies needed to produce a suicide bomb”, according to an invoice from the Al-
Aqsa Brigades Martyrs found during Operation “Defensive Shield” by Israeli
troops (Shahar, 2002). 44 Cynically- but realistically- put, “apart from a willing
young man, all that is needed is such items as nails, gunpowder, a battery, a light
switch and a short cable, mercury (readily obtainable from thermometers), acetone,
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