A marked upswing in Arab terrorist attacks against Israelis is being documented by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) in data found on the agency’s website; and those figures don’t even document the ongoing rock-throwing terror attacks aimed daily at Israeli motorists.
The Shin Bet, which is tasked with tracking terrorist attacks carried out in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, as well as elsewhere, does not include stone throwing attacks in its documentation unless they result in “moderate and serious injuries.”
But what is certain is that there has been an upswing in Arab terrorism aimed at Israelis over the past year, as compared with the figures for 2021.
In its 2022 annual report, the Shin Bet reported 204 “major attacks” that were carried out by Arab terrorists, compared with 121 such attacks a year earlier.
Nearly 900 Arab Terror Attacks in First 3 Months of 2023
In the first quarter of 2023, the Shin Bet reported a total of 871 Arab terrorist attacks against Israelis in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and from Gaza.
The agency reported a total of 187 terror attacks in January 2023, another 157 attacks in February and 183 attacks in March – all of them carried out by Arab terrorists in Judea and Samaria.
According to the data, there were 61 Arab terror attacks in January 2023, 38 attacks in February and 20 attacks in March, all of them in Jerusalem and around the “Green Line.”
In addition, Arab terrorists in Gaza carried out three attacks in January 2023, five attacks in February and three more attacks in March.
15 People Killed by Arab Terrorists in First 3 Months of 2023
Since the start of 2023, 15 people have been murdered by Arab terrorists, and 24 others have been wounded, some of them very seriously.
In March 2023, one person was murdered (in a Tel Avi shooting attack) and eight more people were wounded, according to the agency’s data.
In February 2023, seven people were murdered and six more were wounded by Arab terrorists.
In January 2023, seven people were murdered and 10 were wounded in Arab terrorist attacks.
31 people Killed in Terror Attacks in 2022
The Shin Bet reported that 31 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed last year, and 281 others were wounded by Arab terrorists.
A total of 12 people were murdered in March 2022, during the bulk of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a known trigger for Arab terrorism against Israelis each year.
The agency reported another 472 major terror attacks foiled in 2022 by the Shin Bet, the IDF and Israel Police, as compared with 351 planned attacks by Arab terrorists.
Attacks foiled by Israeli security forces included 358 planned shooting attacks, 57 planned stabbing attacks, 45 planned bombing attacks, six planned car-ramming attacks, three planned suicide bombings and three planned abductions.
The Shin Bet also reported 3,056 terrorists arrested in Judea, Samaria and post-1967 areas of Israel in 2022.
A Total of More Than 2,500 Terror Attacks in 2022
Arab terrorists carried out a total of 2,613 attacks in Judea, Samaria and pre-1967 Israel, according to the Shin Bet.
The figure represents an approximately 20 percent jump from 2021, when 2,135 terror attacks were reported.
Both figures are higher than the 1,320 terror attacks reported in 2020, which included 56 terrorist attacks reported by the Shin Bet, and 430 more foiled by the agency together with the IDF and Israel Police in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem alone.
Stone Throwing Attacks Kill Children and Adults
On September 23, 2011, 25-year-old Asher Palmer and his infant son were murdered in a rock-throwing attack by Arab terrorists while driving on Highway 60 near Kiryat Arba. Palmer was hit in the head and killed by a large rock that smashed the windshield of his car, causing the vehicle to crash on the side of the road.
A former Palestinian Authority security officer, Wa’al al-Arjeh was subsequently convicted on 22 counts of manslaughter, 22 counts of attempted manslaughter and three counts of hurling objects at moving vehicles in connection with the murder.
“Rock throwing may seem harmless, but rocks can kill,” the Israel Defense Forces points out. Below is actual footage from a 2013 rock-throwing attack.
NOTE: Video may be disturbing to some readers.
Israel’s Ambassador to Bahrain Eitan Na’eh served as chargé d’affaires at Israel’s embassy in London when he wrote a letter in January 2016 to UK Labour MP Naz Shah emphasizing that rock-throwing Palestinian Authority terrorists killed Israeli children as well as adults.
Four-year-old Adele Biton was two years old in 2013 when her mother’s car came under a hail of rocks hurled by Palestinian Authority terrorists on a road in Samaria, Na’eh pointed out. The toddler was critically wounded, with severe head injuries in the attack, and remained semi-comatose for two months. She remained severely disabled and passed away in 2015 at age four from complications linked to the neurological condition she was left with as a result of the attack.
The five terrorists involved in her murder were all minors at the time of the attack. They were convicted on manslaughter charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison in a plea deal, due to a lack of witnesses. Parole was subsequently denied.
“In 2001 a five-month-old baby named Yehuda Shoham was killed when a rock thrown by Palestinian assailants smashed through the windscreen of the car his father was driving, crushing his skull,” Na’eh also noted. “Rocks thrown by two Palestinian men in 2011 hit Asher Palmer in the head, causing his car to veer off the road and overturn, killing both him and his infant son Yonathan.
“These rocks … were lethal weapons,” he wrote.
Emergency medical personnel and ambulances are not exempt as targets, either.
In January 2023, United Hatzalah volunteer EMT and ambulance driver Rachel Chuna was injured in a rock-throwing attack by Arab terrorists. Her ambulance came under a hail of rocks as she drove near an Arab village in eastern Gush Etzion.
Miraculously, Chuna managed to reach a nearby Jewish town to receive medical care from Karim Tarwah, a Muslim United Hatzalah volunteer who lives in eastern Jerusalem but works in Gush Etzion.
