DHEISHEH REFUGEE CAMP, March 30: The day before she blew herself up outside a Jerusalem supermarket, Ayat Akhras sat with her fiance and talked about graduating from high school and getting married in the summer.

Akhras, 18, detonated explosives strapped to her body on Friday afternoon, during the shopping rush before stores close for the Jewish Sabbath. The security guard, who blocked Akhras from entering the store, was killed, along with a woman shopper. More than 25 people were wounded.

In a farewell video prepared by Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the high school senior heaped scorn on Arab leaders.

“I am going to fight instead of the sleeping Arab armies who are watching Palestinian girls fighting alone, it is an intefadeh until victory,” she read from a statement, her head wrapped in a traditional Palestinian headdress.

The quiet, diligent schoolgirl never let on that she had joined the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a militia affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, and that she planned to carry out a suicide attack. The deception stretched from her home to her school.

Classmate Rania Abdullah said she saw Akhras Friday morning in the streets of the Dheisheh refugee camp, never guessing where her friend was headed.

“It was about 8:30am. She said ‘Hi,’ and then I continued walking. I was surprised when I heard that she blew herself up in Jerusalem,” Abdullah said.

Standing in front of Akhras’ house in Dheisheh, near the town of Bethlehem, some of her schoolfriends said they were pained at losing her, but understood her reasons for carrying out the attack.

“It was a courageous act and all of us wish to be in her shoes,” Abdullah said, as others hugged pictures of the girl to their chests.

But no one was more in the dark over Akras’ plans then her fiance, Shadi Abu Laban. He’d spent Thursday evening at her family’s home and listened as his bride-to-be spoke of the different exams she was preparing for. She was determined to graduate before marrying, her family said.

“I will never forget her, she will always stay alive inside my heart,” Abu Laban said, his voice shaking.

Hours after her daughter carried out the attack Fatma Akhras was still in shock. “Why didn’t she tell me she was going to die?” Mrs. Akhras screamed. “I would have stopped her.”

Female relatives held Mrs. Akhras as she again broke down in tears.

Like most Palestinians, Akhras was aggrieved by the continued violence, but there was never a suggestion that her feelings would take a militant turn.

“It was a personal decision, if we prevented her once, she would try to do it again,” her father Muhammad said, adding he never knew that Akhras had joined Al Aqsa, which was recently declared a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Palestinians spilled out into the streets of the crowded camp, clapping and cheering when they heard the news. Al Aqsa gunmen fired rounds in the air, while residents proferred choclates and sweets.

Akhras was the second Palestinian woman bomber. In February, 21-year-old Palestinian university student Dareen Abu Aisheh blew herself up at an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank, killing herself and wounding three Israeli policemen.

In January, 27-year-old Wafa Idries, a paramedic, blew herself up in downtown Jerusalem, killing herself and an elderly Israeli man, but it was never established whether she was a suicide bomber or whether explosives she was carrying to a drop-off point went off prematurely.—AP