Wave of violence sets Israel on edge

7 attacks in 2 weeks shatter calm

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — On Monday, Maysoon Musa rose early for morning prayers, then helped harvest squash in the family fields. She acted “perfectly normal,” said her mother, who described her daughter as “just a quiet girl, as shy as a chicken.”

Then the 19-year-old university student went to checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem, a turnstile through the wall that separates the Palestinian territory in the West Bank from Israel. There, according to Israeli authorities, Musa removed a curved dagger from her bag and then stabbed and wounded a female Israeli military police officer in the neck. The victim was Liron Yisraeli, also 19.

The Monday assault was one of seven major attacks against Israelis in Israel and the West Bank over the past two weeks. The pace and mixed style of violence — ambushes, stabbings, drive-by shootings — have broken a months-long period of relative calm and have set many on edge.

Israeli military and police — and ordinary Israelis and Palestinians — are now wondering: Is this another brief flare-up in the conflict or the beginning of a larger conflagration?

Israelis are especially anxious about whether the attacks are the work of organized cells directed by armed factions such as the militant Islamist group Hamas, or whether the violence is being driven by so-called “lone wolf” perpetrators who strike out for personal or political reasons, or both.

Was Musa recruited to a cell? Israel’s domestic intelligence agency told local reporters that Musa, who had never been arrested before, confessed that she came to the checkpoint to attack a soldier.

Musa’s mother said her relatives don’t know what happened. She said her daughter was engaged to be married — a date had been set for August.

The recent spate of attacks coincided with the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

“We don’t know, is it Ramadan? Or is it a strategic change?” said Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, commander of the operations branch in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Early Friday, Palestinian Authority forces arrested over 100 Hamas members in the West Bank who were planning on carrying out attacks, a Palestinian official said.

Adnan Dameri, spokesman for Palestinian security, said, “We will not let Hamas undermine our security and draw our country to bloodshed; we will not let Hamas carry out attacks in the West Bank.”