While the world mourns with France over the horrific terrorist attack in Paris last Friday, Israel had stood by them in solidarity, as they have lived under the threat of terrorism since their initial statehood. In October alone, the Jewish State saw 609 attacks that ended with 11 people being killed (via YNetNews):
Eleven people were killed and 80 wounded during a bloody month that also saw 609 attacks carried out, according to data on the wave of terror published by the Shin Bet on Wednesday.According to the statistics, which cover the month of October, the deadly terror attacks took place in Jerusalem, the West Bank and areas inside the Green Line. Among the dead were 10 Israelis and one foreign citizen.
Among the wounded, 26 were Israelis (18 civilians and 18 members of security forces) who were moderately injured or worse.
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The Shin Bet's data also showed that four terror attacks were carried out by Jews: two arson attacks on Palestinian vehicles and two stabbing attacks.
The breakdown of the data on terror attacks revealed that 11 of them occurred in the area of the Gaza Strip (compared to four in September), 485 in the West Bank (151 in September), 117 in Jerusalem (68 in September) and seven in areas inside the Green Line (compared to none in September).
Shin Bet is Israel’s internal security agency. You could view them as the Israeli version of MI5. The tension between Israel and the Palestinians erupted over unfounded rumors that there would be religious changes on the Temple Mount. There’s also the ongoing frustration Palestinians have over the peace process, which saw Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declare that he was going to ignore the Oslo Accords in September. Those accords provided the foundation for the two-state solution.
Soon after that announcement, it was the beginning of that bloody month, which saw an Israeli couple gunned down in front of their children, a close call involving an inactive bomb at a Tel Aviv intersection, and seemed dotted by an endless string of stabbings. The city of Hebron, where the Cave of the Patriarchs holy site is located, became a focal point of the violence towards the end of October.
Israeli soldiers were deployed throughout the country, as the security situation became more tense last month. Additionally, Israelis were rushing to arm themselves with whatever they could find. Israeli mothers were taking, along with their children, self-defense classes that specifically involved how to neutralize a would-be attacker with a knife. Israelis also lined up to apply for firearm permits after the government loosened restrictions on the permit process.
