Soldiers at the Kalandia checkpoint near Jerusalem caught an Arab teenager Monday morning with two knives hidden on his body. He admitted he was planning carry out a terrorist attack Jews, and security officials are continuing an investigation.
It was at least the fifth terrorist attack or attempt to strike at Jews in the past week. All of the incidents involved relatively simple weapons, indicating a grassroots movement and spontaneous terror in the Palestinian Authority.
Several PA officials have explicitly encouraged violence in the past several weeks following the refusal of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to accept the Netanyahu government’s building freeze for Jews as enough of a concession to resume talks for a new PA state,
On Sunday, soldiers found six explosive devices on the bodies of two Arabs at a checkpoint near Shechem, in central Samaria. Security forces and police earlier on Sunday arrested a PA Arab in the southern port city of Ashkelon for planning to use explosives in a suicide attack in the city, where strategic electric, oil and gas facilities are located.
Several hours earlier, a young Jewish woman was knifed in the back at the Gush Etzion intersection on Highway 60, leading from Jerusalem to Kiryat Arba-Hevron. She was hospitalized with moderate wounds, and the terrorist escaped nearby Arab village.
Last week, a terrorist from a neighboring Arab village infiltrated in the community of Revava in Samaria, unsheathed a commando knife and attempted to stab local residents. Two residents of Revava fought the Arab until soldiers arrived.