April 07, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1429

JERUSALEM, April 6: A woman demanding wheelchairs for her children drove a van close to Israel’s parliament on Sunday and threatened to blow up the vehicle.

The three-hour standoff ended with her peaceful surrender.

“She left the vehicle escorted by the director-general of the Knesset (parliament),” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. “She is going into the Knesset to talk in order to solve her problem.”

Police blocked off streets around the parliament building after the woman drove on to an access road and told security guards she had a gas canister in the vehicle and would detonate it unless her demands for customised wheelchairs were met.

A child, believed to be the woman’s daughter, was inside the van, Rosenfeld said. She was not hurt. “The woman is not going to be arrested at this time. We will assess the situation,” Rosenfeld said after negotiators persuaded her to surrender.

It was not immediately clear if the van contained a gas canister.

A friend of the woman told Israel Radio she had been trying for years to persuade authorities to provide wheelchairs for her physically disabled children.

—Reuters