Stabbing ends lull in attacks
Suspect sought in screwdriver assault; last incident July 1
Jerusalem screwdriver attack first since July 1
A Palestinian man used a screwdriver to stab an Israeli man in the neck and back in Jerusalem on Thursday, the first such attack after a five-week lull in assaults by Palestinians that began last fall.
The assailant, who was not identified, fled the scene and was being sought by security forces. The previous attack occurred on July 1, when a Palestinian from the West Bank shot at a car near Hebron, killing a father and wounding a mother and two children, according to the Israeli military.
Israel has tamped down attacks by retaliating against the assailants’ families rather than cracking down on all Palestinians and provoking a widespread push for new violence against Israelis, according to security analysts. “Unlike in the previous intifa
da (uprising), Israel has seen much higher rates of success in isolating the terrorists from their communities,” rather than applying collective punishment and further inflaming the tensions that spur revenge attacks, said Shlomo Brom, an Israeli strategy analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
Israel has revived the controversial practice of demolishing homes of the families of assailants. While the harsh, punitive measure often fuels the targeted families’ animosity toward Israel, it seems to work as a deterrent among neighbors who witness the demolitions.
At the same time, Israel has been letting more Palestinian workers into the country and is planning to distribute thousands of work permits in the near future, a move intended to spare the wider Palestinian community punishment for the acts of a few.
Since the violence erupted last September, prompted by false rumors that Israel would take control of the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Israeli security forces have struggled to stem assaults by mostly “lone wolf ” assailants armed with knives who are urged on through social media rather than as members of an organized terror campaign.
Israel’s domestic security agency said there were 103 attacks in June, down sharply from 620 last October. Since the violence began, 39 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians and more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, most of whom Israel alleged were assailants.
Elad Ratson, a representative of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said the government has developed online algorithms to identify and take down online posts that incite assaults. In addition, other ministries have worked on a system to find potential attackers based on their online comments in support of violence and a desire to avenge the death of a relative by Israeli forces.
“The largest amount of martyrs have been teenagers who are looking for fame through Facebook,” said Murad Ruben, 24, a factory worker here. He said that there have been a number of assailants from the neighborhood, but after nearly a year of home demolitions and arrests, “people are tired and things have become much quieter.”