AS THE first autumn rains came down on the morning of October 7th, the confrontations in East Jerusalem and the West Bank seemed to be lessening. But just as security officials began cautiously to talk of the latest spike in violence coming to a close, a Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli man in Jerusalem’s Old City. Injured, he drew his gun, shot and severely wounded her. It was one more attack in a cycle which has seen the death, in the space of only a week, of four Israelis and five Palestinians.
Violence has been rising for months, with most Palestinian attacks carried out by individuals, rather than by organised militants. The erection of Israel’s security barrier, and a decade of close co-operation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority’s security apparatus, have severely limited the ability of groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad to operate in the West Bank.
But they are making a return. A Hamas cell carried out a drive-by shooting last week, killing an Israeli couple in their car. The main concern, though, remains “popular” acts of violence, triggered in recent weeks by Palestinian protests against Israeli security sweeps at the al-Aqsa...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1OlHFZp
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