First it was clashes on the Temple Mount. Then a mother and father were shot and killed in their car.Then two men were killed in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City. Here’s why the violence began, how it escalated and what might be next.
Four Israelis killed and several injured in terror attacks
On Oct. 1, militants from the al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigade — the armed wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party — shot and killed an Israeli husband and wife, Rabbi Eitam and Na’ama Henkin. The rabbi was an American citizen whose parents moved to Israel in the 1970s.
The Henkins, both in their early 30s, were driving through the West Bank to their home in the settlement of Neria. The couple’s four children, ages 4 months to 9 years, were in the car and were lightly wounded.
Two days later, a terrorist killed two men in Jerusalem. Aharon Bennett, 22, was on the way to the Western Wall in the Old City when he, his wife and their two sons were attacked. His wife, Adele, 21, was seriously wounded. The second victim, Nehemia Lavi, 41, was stabbed and killed when he tried to fend off the terrorist with a gun. Police shot and killed the terrorist, a 19-year-old law student.
On Oct. 4, a Jewish teenager was wounded in a stabbing attack in the Old City. His attacker was killed by police. And in a matter of hours on Oct. 7, Palestinians carried out four separate incidents: knife attacks in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv and in the Old City, an ambush on a driver in the West Bank and an attack on a soldier in the southern town of Kiryat Gat.
These attacks are being called “popular terror,” unpredictable acts carried out by individuals without apparent coordination.
Tensions high at Temple Mount
The attacks followed weeks of tension over access to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the holy site known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif. Israel barred a violent Islamic protest group from the site in early September, setting off demonstrations, stone throwing and arrests, and leaving one dead and dozens injured. Hours before Rosh Hashanah, Israeli police uncovered a stockpile of pipe bombs, firebombs and rocks that they feared would be aimed at Jewish worshippers.
In the unrest’s wake, Israel heightened police presence in the Old City. The government also passed a law that allows police to fire more quickly on Palestinian stone throwers, as well as increase prison sentences and fines on the stone throwers.
Rhetoric around the Temple Mount remains tense. Arab Knesset member Jamal Zahalka was shown in a video shouting epithets at Jewish visitors to the mount on Sept. 29. And in dueling speeches to the United Nations last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas each accused the other side of upsetting the delicate balance at the site.
Israeli leaders clamp down
Israeli rhetoric has intensified following the attacks. Following the killing of the Henkins, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz wrote on Facebook, “The government will take every necessary step to strengthen security and settlement, and the Palestinians will pay a heavy price. Whoever wants to cross a line will realize he is on the losing side.”
On Oct. 4, Katz, who filled in for Netanyahu during the prime minister’s U.N. trip, wrote on Facebook that he supports “heightened steps” against Palestinian terror following the attacks, including curfews and destroying the terrorists’ homes.
The attacks even prompted harsh words from the normally conciliatory Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin. At a eulogy at Lavi’s funeral Oct. 4, Rivlin said Israel would find and punish terrorists. “Our enemies know how to hurt us, but will not defeat us,” he said. “The fight against terrorism requires determination and inner fortitude. We will reach the killers of the innocent and pure, and we will reach their inciters and their dispatchers, and will deliver them a stinging blow.”
Israel took action, too. After the Oct. 3 attack, the police barred most Palestinians from the Old City for the next two days, the final days of Sukkot. Access was restricted to Israeli citizens, tourists, students, Old City residents and those doing business. In addition, all Muslim men under age 50 were barred from the Temple Mount on Oct. 4 and 5.
Another false alarm?
The past week’s events have dominated the news, and Israelis fear the outbreak of broader Palestinian violence. On Oct. 3, Israeli Knesset opposition leader Isaac Herzog wrote on Facebook that “we’re at the opening of a third intifada.”
The first two violent Palestinian uprisings, in the late 1980s and early 2000s, left thousands of Israelis and Palestinians dead. A third wave would destroy the relative calm that Israelis have become accustomed to since the second intifada ended a decade ago.
But previous bouts also have raised Israeli concern about an intifada, only to wane after a few weeks. Last year saw a string of terrorist attacks in Jerusalem that did not spark wider unrest. And a wave of riots across the West Bank, prompted by the death of a Palestinian detainee in Israeli custody, led to the same fears in 2013, but the protests fizzled.