Should Israel prepare for a new Palestinian intifada (terror uprising)? Judging by what happened in the last two-and-a-half weeks and what happened in Samaria over the weekend, it is certainly possible. The major terror attacks in Israeli cities are back, albeit in a different form than before. Now it mainly concerns shooting attacks by lone Palestinian terrorists.
More than a week after one of the worst terror attacks in the state’s history was commemorated in Israel, there is a new deadly wave of terror that has already killed 14 Israelis so far.
Dozens more were injured in a series of stabbings and shootings that began with a stabbing attack in the city of Beersheva and culminated last Thursday with a shooting attack by a Palestinian terrorist at two bars on Tel Aviv’s busy Dizengoff Street.
The IDF is back in action again after elite units of the Israel Police, Internal Security Service (Shin Bet) and army shot and killed Ra’ad Fathi Razzem, the terrorist who carried out the Tel Aviv attack, early on Friday morning.
The terrorist was eliminated near a mosque in Jaffa, some three kilometers from the bar he had attacked on Dizengoff Street. Razzem killed three Israelis and injured 12 others before fleeing, and turned out to have 12 bullets left in his rifle.
According to Channel 12 News, the terrorist wanted to hide in the mosque until the start of Passover Eve, when Israelis sit for the Seder meal.
Shin Bet investigators say Razzem planned to carry out another shooting attack in Tel Aviv during this festive occasion.
Razzem reportedly was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terror organization sponsored by Iran and taking its orders from the Quds Brigade of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The IDF, assisted by the elite Police unit YAMAM and Shin Bet agents, entered Jenin on Saturday to map Razzem’s house prior to its demolition.
However, the troops came under fire and in the ensuing shoot-out, Ahmad Saadi, also a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was killed. Thirteen other Palestinian Arabs were injured during the operation, including a 19-year-old woman who was hit in the head by shrapnel.
Earlier in Jenin, Israeli security forces arrested a terror cell referred to as a “ticking time bomb.”
During other Israeli operations in Tulkarem, Nablus and Jenin, security forces pursued a terror cell that planned to enter Israel to carry out another attack.
The group of terrorists then threw a bag from their car in which a homemade automatic rifle was found along with a dozen bullets.
The cell managed to escape and fled toward the Israeli Arab city of Umm el-Fahm.
Umm el-Fahm has been in the news recently after two ISIS terrorists living in the city carried out a deadly shooting attack in the Israeli city of Hadera.
The city is a stronghold of extremists and members of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Since the attack in Hadera, Israeli police have arrested more than 100 Arabs with links to the Islamic State group.
Incidents were also reported over the weekend in other Palestinian cities such as Jericho in the Jordan Valley.
On Monday night two Israelis were shot when they entered Joseph’s Tomb near Nablus (Shechem in Hebrew). The two managed to reach an IDF checkpoint where they received initial medical treatment.
Joseph’s Tomb was ransacked two times since last weekend, something that also happened during the Second Intifada.
The question now is whether this new wave of Palestinian violence will culminate in another Intifada.
This will mainly depend on any new terrorist attacks and Israel’s response to them.
What is certain is that Hamas and PIJ want to fuel the violence and that there will be more to come as Ramadan continues.
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