BICOM

What happened: A female IDF soldier was severely wounded in a car ramming attack in the West Bank yesterday.

• The soldier was run over at a petrol station near the settlement of Kokhav Yaakov. The assailant sped off, but was chased and eventually shot and killed by police.
• The driver was named as Rani Mamoun Faiz Abu Ali, 45, a father of five from Beitunia near Ramallah. He held an Israeli work permit and was employed at Rami Levy supermarket branch in the Ariel industrial zone.
• In separate incidents, four more Palestinians were killed in the last two days.
  • In Beit Rima near Ramallah there was a violent demonstration against IDF troops. Palestinians threw firebombs and cinderblocks at the troops, who opened fire and killed two men.  They were later identified as brothers; Jawad and Tafer Rimawi (aged 20 and 21), both Fatah operatives, received a military funeral.
  • Another Palestinian man was killed by IDF gunfire in Beit Ummar near Hebron. The incident began when protestors threw rocks and explosives at an Israeli military jeep which had broken down and became trapped. The soldiers responded with gunfire and crowd-control measures while waiting to be evacuated.
  • In a fourth incident a Palestinian who threw a Molotov cocktail at troops was shot and killed in the village of Al-Mughayyir near Ramallah.

Context: The IDF has revealed data that highlights the growing level of violence emanating from the West Bank.

• 140 Palestinians have been killed so far this year, the vast majority were engaged in violence against the IDF or in terror attacks.  This is almost double the fatalities compared to last year.
• So far there have been 281 terror attacks this year, compared to 91 last year.
• 31 Israelis have been killed, including 23 civilians and eight members of the security forces.
• Overall, 3,382 incidents defined by the IDF as “popular terrorism” have been committed against Israeli targets. This includes stone throwing, stabbing, car-rammings and shooting attacks.
• In parallel, nationalist motivated crime by right-wing Israelis against Palestinians nearly doubled from 446 incidents that were recorded in 2021 to 838 this year. Though overall the incidents this year have tended to be less severe.
• To crack down on West Bank terror cells, earlier this year the IDF launched Operation Breakwater. So far the IDF has arrested around 3,000 people as well confiscating weapons and ammunition.
• According to the Israeli Military Intelligence, more than 500 attacks have been prevented.
• The IDF and Palestinian Authority (PA) still engage in security coordination, which remains a crucial lever to prevent attacks. However there have been (so far isolated) incidents of individual PA members engaging in rogue terror activity against Israel.
• Another cause for relative optimism, until now, is that the general Palestinian public has not engaged in mass demonstrations.

Looking ahead: The Israeli security establishment is concerned the situation could still get worse. Various factors are cited, including:

• • The growing status of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas as well as locally based militias.
  • The falling legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority and its inability to govern some areas.

• There is an open question how the incumbent Israeli government, and its proposed changes, particularly regarding delete extra space control over the Civil Administration in the West Bank and of the Border Police will affect the situation on the ground.