how to say “suicide terrorist” in Hebrew

מְחַבֵּל מִתְאַבֵּד

The expression suicide bomber aptly described the terrorists of the second Intifada in Israel of the early 2000s. Today’s attackers are just as willing to die in order to murder Jews, but they tend to use knives and cars instead of bombs.

The Hebrew equivalent of suicide bomber applies to both brands of terrorist: מחבל מתאבד

– literally, suicide terrorist/saboteur. The word מחבל

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when the attacker is a male, or מחבלת

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 when she is a female, comes from the active-intensive form of the root ח.ב.ל (kh.b.l) meaning injury. And מתאבד

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for a male and מתאבדת

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for a female – literally, committing suicide – come from the reflexive-intensive form of the root א.ב.ד (a.b.d) meaning loss, so that those committing suicide are purposefully losing themselves.

For example:

לאדם המערבי לפעמים קשה להבין את הפסיכולוגיה של מחבלים מתאבדים.

For the Westerner it’s sometimes difficult to understand the psychology of suicide terrorists.