Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have all been implicated in involving children in this way.
The issue was brought to world attention after a widely televised incident in which a mentally handicapped Palestinian teenager, Hussam Abdo, was disarmed at an Israeli checkpoint.
[5] In late 2004, Human Rights Watch claimed that at least 10 bombers aged under 18 had been used by Palestinian militants to carry out attacks against Israel in the past four years.
[6] Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade were all linked to underage attacks in the HRW report.
[6] After a 16-year-old child was involved in a suicide attack in November 2004, the group responsible, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, admitted it had made a mistake and vowed to improve its age checking procedures.
[6] Umm Nidal, who sent three of her sons, including one 17-year-old, on suicide attacks, said "I love my children, but as Muslims we pressure ourselves and sacrifice our emotions for the interest of the homeland.
[16] On September 23, 2004, a day before Yom Kippur, the Shin Bet and the Israel Police claimed they had captured of a 15-year-old suicide bomber and a 7 kg explosive belt in the village of Dir-Hana in the Western Galilee.
[20] According to Israel Defense Forces, on February 3, 2005, Mahmoud Tabouq, a 15 or 16-year-old Palestinian, was arrested at the Huwara checkpoint near Nablus carrying a bag containing an explosive belt, an improvised gun, and 20 bullets.
[21][22] According to Ynet, on April 12, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy identified as Hassan Hashash was caught at Huwara checkpoint hiding five pipe bombs under his coat.
Family members of Hashash suggested that he deliberately carried bombs into an IDF checkpoint in order to be arrested and study for the "Bagrut" final exams in the Israeli jail.
The two told interrogators that they had been acting as couriers for terrorists, but security forces suspect they planned to get close to the soldiers and then detonate the charges.
On June 15, The Israeli press reported that the Shabak arrested a Palestinian militant cell in Nablus during the previous month.
[27] In 2002, during the Second Intifada, the Israeli military used an image of a Palestinian toddler dressed as a suicide bomber as part of Israel's public diplomacy.
[37] According to Human Rights Watch, "Major Palestinian armed groups, including Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas, have publicly disavowed the use of children in military operations, but those stated policies have not always been implemented.
Children are susceptible to recruitment by manipulation or may be driven to join armed groups for a variety of reasons, including a desire to avenge relatives or friends killed by the Israeli army".
[38] According to emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia School of Medicine Vamik Volkan, "Most suicide bombers in the Middle East are chosen as teenagers, "educated", and then sent off to perform their duty when they are in their late teens or early to mid-twenties.
The "education" is most effective when religious elements of the large-group identity are provided as solutions for the personal sense of helplessness, shame, and humiliation".
[39] Volkan gives the examples of beatings, torture, or the loss of a parent as typical humiliating events that might make a young person more susceptible to recruitment for suicide terrorism.