Terrorist attacks in Israel drop to lowest tally in over a year
Published October 14, 2016
(JTA) — The number of terrorist attacks perpetrated in Israel dropped in August to 93 — the lowest monthly tally on record since March 2015 and the first dip since then below the 100-incident mark.
The decrease owed to a near halving of incidents in Jerusalem in August, where security forces documented 13 attacks in August compared to 24 in July, the Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, said in its latest monthly report, published this week. Overall, the number of terrorist attacks dropped in August by 8 percent from the total of 101 incidents recorded in July.
The attacks resulted in injury to seven Israelis in August, three of whom were stabbed. Another two were wounded from firebombs and the remaining victims were injured from an explosive charge and the hurling of stones. Three of the terrorist incidents tallied were mortar round launchings from the Gaza Strip, which did not result in injury.
Whereas August saw no fatalities among victims of terrorist attacks, one victim, Rabbi Michael Mark, was murdered in such attacks in July. Another three people were wounded in the armed attack that killed him near the West Bank settlement of Otniel.
In Israel, the West Bank and Gaza attacks began increasing in August 2015, when 171 of them were documented, and rose sharply in September and October of that year, with 223 and 620 attacks recorded in those months respectively. But the overall number of attacks decreased to 326 in November, 246 in December, 169 in January, 155 in February and 123 in March.
On Oct. 9, two people were killed and at least six injured when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire on a light rail stop in Jerusalem.
On Wednesday, a Palestinian child was killed in the southern Gaza Strip in an incident that a Palestinian medical source blamed on Israeli troops, but which Israel said was not the action of any of its forces.
Abdullah Nasser Atwa Abu Mdeif was shot in the back by a bullet on the evening of Oct. 12 in the al-Qarrara area east of Khan Yunis, Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra told the Ma’an news agency, adding his death was from IDF fire.
Yoav Mordechai, the Israel Defense Forces Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, wrote in a statement that the boy likely had died from a stray bullet shot during a wedding in the area.
Hundreds of Palestinians have died in clashes with security forces following the escalation in terrorist attacks last year. Many of them were killed while perpetrating terrorist attacks. At least 30 Palestinians have died in the Gaza Strip over the past two weeks in border clashes with Israeli troops or in retaliatory strikes for the launching of projectiles into Israel, Ma’an reported.
