The Father of the Terrorist “I am proud of what my son did”
June 4, 2001. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the military wing of the terrorist organization Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The organization also identified the attacker as Saeed Khutary — a Jordanian national who had been living with relatives in Qalqilya.
According to the Palestinian Information Center, Khutary had previously served in the Jordanian army, after which he moved to Qalqilya to live with his brother and worked there as an electrician. It was also reported that Khutary was a close friend of Fadi Atallah, a Hamas member who carried out a similar attack in April of the same year. Moreover, twelve days before the attack, Khutary had been detained by Palestinian security forces but was later released after interrogation.
"I am proud of what my son did," said the father of Saeed Khutary, who carried out the suicide bombing near the Tel Aviv disco "Dolphi" on Saturday night. "If I had twenty more sons, they would do the same, and I would not stop them. There is no other way with Jews."
Khutary's father made this statement in an interview with Jordanian television.
According to information published in the newspaper Maariv, Israeli security services and police are currently searching for three additional Palestinians believed to have been part of the same group as Khutary and who entered Israeli territory together with him. Their whereabouts are currently unknown. However, police have linked reports of their presence to a statement by the terrorist group Islamic Jihad, which claimed that five more individuals were prepared to carry out attacks in Israel.