A Palestinian teenager was shot and killed while attempting a stabbing attack on an IDF soldier near Bani Na’im, outside of Hebron, on Tuesday morning, the army said, marking a fifth straight day of attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem.Israeli officials are puzzled as to why the outbreak occurred now:
The alleged assault was the ninth such attack in under a week, with the vast majority occurring in Jerusalem and the Hebron area, where Palestinians live in close proximity to settlers and Israeli troops.
Earlier on Monday, two Hebron residents tried to stab a group of border guards near the city’s Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site before they were shot, according to police.
On Friday, two residents of Bani Na’im were shot by security forces as they rammed their car into a bus stop near the Kiryat Arba settlement. Three Israeli teenagers were lightly hurt as they ran to escape the attack.
The renewed surge in attacks caught many Israelis by surprise, as the violence that marked 2015 and early 2016 appeared to have waned in recent months, and raised fears that regular attacks could return.
Officials fear the upcoming Jewish holidays and the recently ended Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday could be behind the raised tensions.
The holiday and the month of September “are always more susceptible to spikes in violent Palestinian activities,” a military official, speaking anonymously, said Saturday.
“The motivation and inspiration to carry out attacks against Israelis remains strong,” the official said.
The key to the renewal of attacks may be related to something else.
On September 16, 2015, Mahmoud Abbas made one of his most antisemitic speeches ever. MEMRI translated it this way:
Everybody is asking what we should do. We will knock on all possible doors, in order to make the voice of Jerusalem heard. Onward we go, Allah willing. We salute you and all the men and women in ribat. We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah, Allah willing. Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah.
Dear brothers, we are all here for the sake of Jerusalem. I tell you in all honesty, a Palestinian state without Jerusalem will never be. The Palestinian state must include its capital, noble Jerusalem – with its capital, East Jerusalem, which was occupied in 1967. We do not allow any of their measures. All these divisions… The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all ours, and they have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We shall not allow them to do so, and we shall do whatever we can to protect Jerusalem.
September 16th marked the beginning of the current wave of attacks. Palestinian Arabs are very sensitive to anniversaries. Abbas' incitement directly led to last year's spree of murders, stabbings, shootings and car rammings.
It seems more than coincidental that the current wave began on the exact anniversary of Mahmoud Abbas' antisemitic incitement speech.