Terrorism Attacks Down Overall, Intel Head Warns of Escalation

By Shmuel Smith

YERUSHALAYIM — Five Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks in November, but the Shin Bet said on Monday that the overall number was the lowest in the last four months, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The agency said there were 196 attacks in Yehuda and Shomron and Yerushalayim during November, compared to 401 attacks in October, 254 in September and 209 in August.

But casualties were worse, as five people were killed Hy”d and 28 wounded compared to three deaths and 19 injuries in October and two fatalities and 14 injured during attacks in August.

The incidents included three Israelis who were killed in a stabbing and vehicular ramming attack outside the Ariel Industrial Zone, and two Israelis who were murdered in the double bombing of bus stops in Yerushalayim.

The majority of attacks were Molotov cocktails – a total of 121 compared to 258 in October, 139 in September, 135 in August and only 75 in July.

There was also a decrease in the number of shooting attacks, from 46 in October to 21.

Israeli security forces say they have arrested over 3,000 Palestinian suspects and thwarted over 500 terror attacks during this year.

While organized terror groups like Hamas and PIJ have not directly carried out attacks, they continue to incite individual Palestinians to do so.

Speaking at the Gazit Conference, the head of the Military Intelligence Research Department, Brig.-Gen. Amit Saar said on Monday that it is misleading to term the current violence as a “wave,” implying something that will crest and break.

“People can say nothing has changed… the terror is seasonal, every few years we have a wave and afterward it calms down and comes back. There are people in the security establishment who believe this to be the case, but I think otherwise.

“I think we need to examine what we have seen in recent months — not through the [prism of the] number of attacks, but the causes,” he said.

“We are seeing the foundations that allowed us to manage the conflict beginning to falter. We are far from being able to solve the conflict, but there were foundations allowing us to manage the conflict at a relatively low cost for years,” Saar said.

“These foundations in the past year, and heading into 2023, are going to become unstable,” he said.

“I see young people who get up at 4 a.m. just to throw stones at IDF armored vehicles entering the village. It’s alarming to think how much anger is needed for this,” he said.

“They lash out at everything — the PA, Hamas, the [other] organized groups. They are angry and exposed to weapons and incitement. They want to make their own ‘story’ and put it on [social media],” he said.