The IDF Spokesman, Brigadier General Ran Kochav, told Reshet Bet radio Sunday morning: “The attacks that have been carried out since Be’er Sheva have not been under the direction of Hamas or any other terrorist organization, which is challenging and difficult.”
On Saturday night, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip carried out a warlike speech encouraging PA Arabs as well as Israeli Arabs to continue to carry out terrorist attacks, giving the impression that Hamas had been behind the wave of terror of the past two months (Hamas Leader Threatens to Attack Synagogues Abroad Over Al Aqsa Mosque). But according to the IDF spokesman, Hamas may have been big on talk but had not been connected to the action. Indeed, several of the recent attacks involved Arab ISIS sympathizers.
תיעוד: כך נתפסו המחבלים מפיגוע הירי הקטלני באריאל@ItayBlumental
צילום: דובר צה”ל pic.twitter.com/xtBDsoQWxD— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 1, 2022
The main terrorist attacks in the current wave of terror (there have been 13 others since March 2 that did not result in fatalities) have been:
- The stabbing attack in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, Jerusalem, on March 21, was carried out by the terrorist Vasim a-Said from Hebron who murdered Moldovan citizen Ivan Tarnowski. Another foreign worker was moderately injured. The terrorist was arrested hours later by a Border Police force when he tried to cross the separation fence.
- The combined attacks in Be’er Sheva on March 22 were a stabbing and ramming attack carried out by an Israeli-Arab resident of Hura at three different sites. Four Israelis were killed in the attacks and two injured. The terrorist was shot and killed by armed civilians.
- The shooting attack in Hadera on March 27 was carried out by two Israeli-Arabs from Umm al-Fahm on Herbert Samuel Street in Hadera. Two Border Police officers were killed in the attack and five Israelis were injured. The two terrorists were shot and killed on the spot.
- The shooting attack in Bnei Brak on March 29 was carried out by a PA Arab terrorist from the village of Ya’bad, who murdered four civilians and a police officer. Two other civilians were injured. The terrorist was shot and killed by another police officer. The attack was the deadliest in Israel since the attack on the Bnei Torah synagogue in Jerusalem in 2014.
- The shooting attack on Dizengoff Street on April 7 took place in several sites along Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv. Three Israelis were killed in the attack and another 14 civilians were injured. The terrorist, a PA Arab resident of Jenin, was killed early the next morning by fighters from the Shin Bet operational unit in Jaffa near the mosque from which he had left to carry out the killing spree.
- The shooting attack in Ariel on April 29 was carried out by 2 PA Arabs at the entrance to the city of Ariel who killed security guard Vyacheslav Golev, 23, a former student at Ariel University. The terrorists were caught the next day in their homes in the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan.
Some of the attacks involved Arab terrorists who had been convicted of previous terrorist activity and received lenient sentences after expressing remorse during the legal proceedings.
The IDF on Sunday morning published documentation of the arrest of the Ariel terrorists in the village of Karawat Bnei Hassan, following a joint operation by the Shin Bet, the IDF, and the Police Yamam counter-terrorism force. The forces also captured the weapons used by the terrorists in the attack. The detainees are Yahya Marai and Yusuf Assi.
Preliminary investigation of the attack shows that minutes before the terrorists arrived with their vehicle, they passed a few meters from the checkpoint at the intersection, made a U-turn, and drove off. Investigators suspect that they drove by the site twice to check the structure of the guard’s booth and the conduct of the security guards.
