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Case file

Wafa al Bass

In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “palestinian arab resident of gaza who was permitted to enter israel for the purpose of being treated at an isra”. Today it says “palestinian arab resident of northern gaza and a student at al quds university who was permitted to enter israe”. A word that once opened this article now sits 50% of the way down it.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025

Wafa al Bass ( Wafa al-Biss , b. 1984) is a Palestinian Arab resident of northern Gaza and student at Al Quds University who was permitted to enter Israel for the purpose of being treated for burns at an Israeli hospital in 2005 after a gas cooker had blown up while she was making dinner. She wore a suicide bomb vest which she attempted to explode as she crossed into Israel via the Erez Crossing . Al Bass had been given permission by Israel to enter Israel to receive hospital treatment for severe burns at Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva . On June 20, 2005, during one of her return visits, guards at the crossing became suspicious given that she was walking awkwardly, and discovered that under her traditional black robes she had strapped a 22-pound bomb to her legs. She unsuccessfully attempted to then detonate the bomb, and when questioned, she said that she hoped to explode the bomb after arriving at the hospital where she had been treated. She said "I am a member of Al Aqsa Brigades .. I believe in death." She was sentenced for 12 years, but was released early in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange . Upon release from prison she immediately attained further notoriety by urging Gazans to "take another Shalit" every year until all convicted Arab terrorists held in Israeli prisons were freed. As schoolchildren gathered at her home in northern Gaza to welcome her home, she told them, "I hope you will walk the same path we took and God willing, we will see some of you as martyrs ." Female Suicide Bombers Goldberg, Jeffrey (October 18, 2011). "Failed Suicide Bomber Hopes for Another Chance to Kill" (YouTube video) . Interviewed by Leland Vittert . (minute 1:15) "... ready to sacrifice her own life to kill Israelis at a local hospital. She knew the hospital well, as doctors there once treated her." : CS1 maint: date and year ( link ) Terrorism in Perspective "Israeli Soldier Swapped for Hundreds of Palestinians" .

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1267389686.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “palestinian arab resident of gaza who was permitted to enter israel for the purpose of being treated at an isra”. Today it says “palestinian arab resident of northern gaza and a student at al quds university who was permitted to enter israe”. A word that once opened this article now sits 50% of the way down it. Read the current article and compare.
20152020Oct '232025
terror1111
martyr1111
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2015, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

palestinian arab resident of gaza who was permitted to enter israel for the purpose of being treated at an isra

Now

palestinian arab resident of northern gaza and a student at al quds university who was permitted to enter israe

Where the word went

It left the opening. It did not leave the article. Wikipedia moved it down the page, where a reader arriving from a search result will not reach it.

  • “martyr” was in the opening on October 6, 2023. Today 3 remain, 50% of the way down the article.
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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