BICOM

The head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency has told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that although the number of attacks in the West Bank has decreased in recent months, the area is still extremely volatile and could ignite at any given moment.

It was the first time that Nadav Argaman, who recently took up office, had addressed the forum, providing an overview of security issues in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He said that Palestinian attacks in the West Bank had decreased from around 600 in October, to 103 in June. In total, the attacks have claimed 40 victims.

However, Argaman warned that the decrease was deceptive. He outlined the number of attacks which have been thwarted during 2016, including 11 attempted suicide attacks, 10 kidnapping attempts and over 60 shooting attacks. Most of these, said Argaman, are attributed to Hamas, which is “unrelentingly trying to destabilise Jerusalem and the West Bank”.

Argaman added that  renewed violence could erupt due to any number of events, such as tension on the Temple Mount or a “game changing” attack. Another variable factor in the violence, according to Argaman, is the attitude of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. He said that when Abbas explicitly condemns terrorism, it has a calming effect, but that Abbas had recently determined not to do so. Argaman also warned of an uptick in anti-Israel rhetoric as opponents vie to succeed Abbas.

Argaman noted that 16-18 year old Palestinians were most likely to carry out a terror attack, while around 40 per cent of the attacks since October were carried out by women, largely under pressure to “restore family honour”.

Meanwhile, this morning, Israeli border police opened fire on a Palestinian vehicle it suspected of attempting to ram into them, killing the driver. The incident occurred in A-Ram, north of Jerusalem, as Israeli forces conducted an operation to seize illegal weapons.