General Information

News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (December 22-29, 2009)

This past week events focused on the shooting attack in which an Israeli civilian was killed. Two days later an IDF force entered the Kasbah (old city) in Nablus to detain the terrorists who had carried out the attack in Samaria. Hamas initiated a media campaign in response to Egypt’s building a barrier along its
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (December 15-22, 2009)

This past week two rockets fell in the western Negev. Hamas continued its policy of terrorist activity restraint. The negotiations for the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit are at a crossroads. Hamas expects to be informed of the Israeli position to make its own decisions. The PLO’s Central Council voted to continue Mahmoud
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (December 8-15, 2009)

This week sporadic rocket fire continued from the Gaza Strip into the western Negev as Hamas continued it policy of restraint. The focus of the week’s events was the torching of the mosque in the village of Yasuf (south of Nablus), apparently by right-wing extremists from Samaria. It was strongly denounced by both Israel’s prime
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (December 1-8, 2009)

This past week one rocket hit was identified in the western Negev. An IDF patrol was attacked with RPG and light arms fire near the security fence in the central Gaza Strip. There was intensive activity in Judea and Samaria of stone- and Molotov cocktail-throwing. Political activity focused on the Swedish initiative to determine a
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (November 24-December 1, 2009)

This past week there was no rocket or mortar shell fire into Israeli territory. An attempt to cross the Israeli-Egyptian border was prevented. The infiltrator fled but left behind a bag with a 15-kilogram (33-pound) IED, apparently intended to be used in a terrorist attack in Israel. Internal political affairs focused on the announcement made
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (November 17-24, 2009)

Rocket and mortar shell fire into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip increased this past week, with four rocket and two mortar shell hits. In response, on three separate occasions the Israeli Air Force attacked sites A delegation of senior Hamas figures arrived in Cairo for meetings with the Egyptians and the German mediator regarding
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General Information

For decades, the Palestinian terrorist organizations have waged a vicious war against the State of Israel, starting in the 1920s and 1930s, causing untold bloodshed. Their mass-casualty suicide bombing attacks claimed hundreds of victims. After the Six Day War, Palestinian terrorism accelerated and the number of terrorist attacks in Israel and abroad against Jewish and Israeli targets increased.

During the 1970s, planes were hijacked by terrorists from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.  After the Black September events (the removal of terrorists from Jordan in 1970), most prominent were terrorist attacks abroad carried out by a terrorist group from the Fatah organization calling itself Black September. Those attacks culminated in 1972, when 11 Israeli sportsmen were murdered at the Munich Olympics. Trans-border terrorist attacks were also carried out (attacks from Jordan until 1970 and attacks from the Lebanese border in the 1970s), some of them targeting Israeli civilians. In the 1990s, suicide bombing attacks became the main form of struggle carried out by the Palestinians, first by the radical Islamic organizations, primarily Hamas, and later also by secular organizations such as Fatah. 


There was a significant increase in terrorist attacks during the Palestinian terrorist campaign of 2000-2005 (known as the Al-Aqsa or Second Intifada), during which a great many attacks were carried out, including many suicide bombing attacks which disrupted daily life in Israel and threatened its large cities. The second half of 2015 and early 2016 witnessed a wave of terror characterized by lone-wolf attacks, mainly stabbing, vehicular and shooting attacks.