JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip - A 64-year-old Palestinian grandmother blew herself up near Israeli troops sweeping through northern Gaza on Thursday, and eight other Palestinians were killed in a day of clashes and rocket fire.

In this photo released by Hamas, Thursday, Nov. 23, 2006, Palestinian Fatma Omar An-Najar is seen holding a rifle before carrying out a suicide bombing next to Israeli soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip. [AP]

The militant Hamas, which is in charge of the Palestinian government, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack and identified the bomber as Fatma Omar An-Najar. Her relatives said she was 64 - by far the oldest of the more than 100 Palestinian suicide bombers who have targeted Israelis over the past six years.

Israeli forces were moving through the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on the second day of an operation to stem rocket fire from the coastal strip into southern Israel. They spotted a woman acting suspiciously, the military said. Soldiers threw a stun grenade, a weapon that makes a loud nose but causes no damage. The woman then set off explosives she was carrying, killing herself and slightly wounding two soldiers.

At the compound where her extended family lives near Jebaliya camp, her oldest daughter Fatheya explained the bomber's motives.

"They (Israelis) destroyed her house, they killed her grandson - my son. Another grandson is in a wheelchair with an amputated leg," she said.

Female suicide bombers were a rarity during the first several years of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but that has gradually changed. The last suicide bombing, on Nov. 6, was also carried out by a woman in northern Gaza.

But the past few weeks have seen an increase in militant activity by women in Gaza who have served as "human shields" defending the homes of militants that Israel has threatened to destroy.

Fatheya said she and her mother had taken part in rally at a Gaza mosque three weeks ago where women defied a cordon of heavily armed Israeli troops to create a diversion for besieged Hamas fighters to slip away.

"She and I, we went to the mosque. We were looking for martyrdom," the daughter said.

Hamas spokesman Abu Obeideh said both Palestinian men and women are committed to battling the Israelis.

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