Spotlight on Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (December 21-27, 2022)

Shots fired near Havat Gilad

• On the evening of December 25, 2022, shots were fired at an Israeli vehicle near Havat Gilad (southwest of Nablus). No casualties or damage were reported. An IDF search located a number of shell casings (IDF spokesman’s Twitter account, December 26, 2022).
• The Lion’s Den terrorist network claimed responsibility for the gunfire. They claimed the shots were precise and the network’s operatives retreated without incident. They also threatened Israel, warning that “if you don’t return the bodies of our shaheeds your settlers won’t return safely to their homes” (Paldf, December 25, 2022).

Shots fired at the settlement of Shaked

• On the evening of December 23, 2022, dozens of shots were fired at the settlement of Shaked (west of Jenin). Several bullets shattered the windows and penetrated the children’s bedroom. No casualties were reported. IDF forces searched the area for the shooters. It was the fifth time in recent months that terrorists shot at the settlement (IDF spokesman, Israeli media, December 23, 2022).
• The Jenin Battalion reported that its operatives had shot a “heavy barrage [of bullets]” at the settlement of Shaked, claiming “direct hits” (Jenin Battalion Telegram channel, December 23, 2022). The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (AAMB) also issued a claim of responsibility for the shooting, reporting having hit one of the houses, after which its operatives retreated without incident (AAMB Telegram channel, December 23, 2022).

  
Right: Bullet hole in window in Shaked (Samaria Regional Council, December 23, 2022). Left: AAMB documentation of the shooting (AAMB Telegram channel, December 23, 2022).

Gunfire near an IDF post in the Nablus area

• On December 20, 2022, after reports of hearing gunshots fired at an IDF post near Nablus, an IDF force instituted a search of the area. During the search shots were fired at the soldiers, who returned fire. No casualties or damage were reported (IDF spokesman, December 20, 2022).

Significant Terrorist Attacks in Judea and Samaria since November 2020^[1]

Counterterrorism Activities

Terrorist attacks inside Israel prevented

• After an operation that lasted several weeks, on December 14, 2022, the Israeli security forces exposed a terrorist network that was planning to carry out either suicide bombings or IED attacks inside Israel. Several terrorist operatives were detained in Judea and Samaria. They were directed by operatives of the Popular Resistance Committees and the AAMB in the Gaza Strip, among them Fathi Omar Hajaj, a terrorist operative from Jabalia, an expert in manufacturing explosives. The detention of the operatives led to the exposure of other Palestinian recruits from Judea and Samaria. In addition, an IED hidden inside a fire extinguisher was seized; it was to have been used for a mass-casualty attack inside Israel (Israeli Security Agency spokesman’s unit, December 26, 2022).

Israeli security force activities

• This past week the Israeli security forces continued intensive counterterrorism activities in Judea and Samaria, detaining Palestinians suspected of involvement in terrorist activities and confiscating large quantities of weapons (IDF spokesman’s Twitter account):
•  On December 22, 2022, the Israeli security forces detained a Palestinian suspect near the village of Uja (north of Jericho). He had five handguns in his possession (IDF spokesman’s Twitter account, December 22, 2022).

• On December 21, 2022, Mujahed Muzeir al-Talfiti was detained, a Palestinian wanted for involvement in the December 16, 2022 shooting near Havat Gilad. Mujahed al-Talfiti, 25 years old, a Hamas operative and former prisoner, had been detained in the past for involvement in terrorist activities (Israeli media, December 21, 2022).

• On December 21, 2022, Israeli security forces operating in the villages of Dura (west of Hebron) and Bayt Ummar (north of Hebron) seized two Carlo improvised machineguns (IDF spokesman’s Twitter account, December 21, 2022).

Palestinian killed near the Tomb of Joseph in Nablus

• On the night of December 21, 2022, about one thousand Israeli worshippers entered the precinct of the Tomb of Joseph in Nablus,^[2] secured by IDF forces. Several dozen armed Palestinians rioted, throwing IEDs at the forces and shooting at them. The soldiers returned fire (IDF Twitter account, December 22, 2022). The Palestinian media reported the death of Ahmed ‘Atef Mustafa Daraghmeh, 23 years old, from Tubas, who was a soccer player in the Thaqafi Tulkarm team (Wafa, December 22, 2022).
• Daraghmeh was a Hamas operative who went to Nablus from Tubas, apparently with the express purpose of clashing with IDF soldiers. Hamas issued a mourning notice for him, claiming him as a “jihad fighter” in its ranks who was killed in clashes [with IDF forces] in eastern Nablus. Isma’il Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ political bureau, and his deputy Saleh al-‘Arouri, telephoned Daraghmeh’s father to offer condolences (Palinfo, December 25, 2022).

 
Right: The Hamas mourning notice for Ahmed Daraghmeh (Paldf Twitter account, December 22, 2022). Left: Daraghmeh’s body wrapped in a Hamas flag (Jmedia Twitter account, December 22, 2022).

• The PA called on international groups, including FIFA, to condemn and punish Israel. Needless to say, no one in the PA mentioned that he was a Hamas operative who deliberately went to Nablus to clash with Israeli security forces.^[3]

The double bombing attack in Jerusalem solved

• On December 27, 2022, the Israeli security force revealed information about the Palestinian terrorist who carried out the double bombing attack in Jerusalem on November 23, 2022, in which two Israelis were killed. He is Islam Farouh, 26 years old, from east Jerusalem, who lived alternately in Kafr ‘Aqab and Ramallah. He did not have a record of security violations and came from a family of doctors; his mother is from Abu Tor and his father lives in Ramallah. He has a BA in mechanical engineering from the Azrieli Engineering College in Jerusalem and had extensive technical knowledge. Interrogation revealed he operated alone, influenced by ISIS’s Salafi-jihadist ideology, but was not a member of the organization. He had planned the attack for a long time, using his knowledge of mechanical engineering and learning how to make explosives via the Internet. He prepared the IEDs in an abandoned area near Bitunia (west of Ramallah).
• On the day of the attack he rode a motorcycle to both locations, placed the camouflaged IEDs and left the city. He planned to detonate them remotely using a phone but they exploded half an hour apart. At the Ramot Junction, the location of the second explosion, he hid another IED inside a gas cylinder, planning to detonate it when rescue forces arrived, but was prevented by a technical error of his phone.
• The motorcycle he used was found abandoned in Nahal Og (east of in the Judean desert), along with his clothing and helmet. Five pipe bombs were found nearby, weighing a total of five kilograms (11 pounds). Following his interrogation, one of his friends, Hamed Uthman, 23 years old, was also detained, on suspicion of planning to detonate an explosive belt in the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem. It was planned as a mass-casualty attack and was in its initial planning stages (Israeli media, December 27, 2022).^[4]

 
The motorcycle and equipment located in Nahal Og (Israel Police Force, December 27, 2022).

Rocket and mortar shell fire into Israel

• This past week no rocket or mortar shell hits were identified in Israeli territory.

Monthly Distribution of Rocket and Mortar Shell Fire since January 2020

Annual Distribution of Rocket Hits

Distribution of the funds from Qatar

• Mohammed al-Emadi, chairman of Qatar’s National Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, reported that on December 22, 2022, the Committee began transferring payment for the month of December to 100,000 needy families in the Gaza Strip, $100 per family. Payment will be made by the UN at approximately 300 distribution centers in the Gaza Strip (Qatar’s National Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, December 21, 2022).

Hamas accuses Israel of flooding in the Gaza Strip

• Significant flooding was reported in the Gaza Strip in the wake of the heavy rainfall of the past few days (Paldf Twitter account, December 24 and 25, 2022). It caused the ministry of education in Gaza to cancel classes in all the kindergartens, schools and institutes of higher learning (Twitter account of photojournalist Hassan Aslih, December 26, 2022). Hamas-affiliated groups in the Gaza Strip accused Israel of responsibility for the flooding, which they claimed was caused when Israel opened dams near the Gaza Strip border. They called on the Arab-Muslim and international communities for urgent intervention to exert pressure on Israel and prevent it from opening dams near the Gaza Strip (website of the office of local government in the Gaza Strip, Shehab Twitter account, December 25, 2022).

   
Flooding in the Gaza Strip (Right: Paldf Twitter account, December 24, 2022. Left: Sida News Twitter account, December 24, 2022).

Anniversary of Operation Cast Lead

• For the 14th anniversary of Operation Cast Lead Hamas issued a statement claiming the operation had been a milestone in Palestinian history because the “resistance” [Palestinian terrorist organizations] had amassed enough power to improve their capabilities to “chalk up victory after victory,” from Operation Pillar of Defense (2012) to Operation Guardian of the Walls (2021). Hamas added that Israel (“the enemy”), which had hung its hopes on overthrowing Hamas, destroying the “resistance” in the Gaza Strip and extracting Gilad Shalit, an Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades captive, had failed to achieve all its objectives (Hamas website, December 27, 2022).
• To mark the anniversary, the National Resistance Battalions, the military-terrorist wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) (the Shaheed Omar al-Qassem Forces) held a military exercise whose name was “The road to Palestine.” It was held near the Gaza Strip’s northern border with the participation of dozens of terrorist operatives, who simulated storming an IDF post. The exercise was held a few hundred yards from the location of the terrorist attack in which the community of Netiv HaAsara was infiltrated on August 25, 2007^[5] (Telegram channel of the DFLP’s military-terrorist wing, December 24, 2022). The wing recently held a similar exercise near Rafah.

   
The DFLP’s military exercise: simulating the storming of an IDF post (Telegram channel of the DFLP’s military-terrorist wing, December 24, 2022).

Campaign to boycott Israel

• Senior Hamas figure Bassem Na’im,^[6] who is also chairman of the Campaign to Boycott Israel and the “Struggle” Against Normalization – Palestine,^[7] recorded a message for school children in the Gaza Strip, calling on them to boycott Israel (“the Zionist occupation”). He claimed the objective of the campaign was to raise the awareness of the Palestinians, the Arab-Muslim world and people around the globe to the need [sic] to isolate Israel, boycott it and oppose normalization [of the relations of Arab states with Israel]. He claimed everyone had to participate in a comprehensive boycott, culturally, economically, politically, in sports and the arts (Campaign Facebook page, December 24, 2022).

Christmas in Bethlehem

• The Palestinian media reported on the Christmas festivities in Bethlehem and on crowds of visitors, including tourists from abroad, who came to Bethlehem during the holiday. According to Hanna Hanania, deputy Bethlehem mayor, they expected thousands of visitors and tourists would come for the events, which the city spent five months planning. He also reported that from the beginning of the year there had been a significant increase in the number of visitors, about 123,000 people (al-Quds, December 24, 2022).

   
Tourists celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem (al-Quds, December 24, 2022).

• On December 24, 2022, Christmas eve, Mahmoud Abbas paid an official visit to the Bethlehem district to participate in the Christmas mass of the Western Churches. It was the first time in two years, since the beginning of the corona epidemic, he had participated in Christmas ceremonies (al-Quds, December 24, 2022). A holiday meal was held, where he said they would receive the new year more determined than ever, prepared to stand firm on their land and establish a Palestinian state. He said 2022 had ended with the rise of an Israeli government whose slogan was extremism and apartheid, and that 2022 had passed by without the keeping of the promises Joe Biden had made to the Palestinians (Mahmoud Abbas’ Facebook page, December 24, 2022).

  
Right: Mahmoud Abbas (red tie, front row at the left) attends the Midnight Mass in the Church of the Nativity. Left: Mahmoud Abbas at the Christmas feast (Wafa, December 24 and 25, 2022).

The PA prepares itself for the formation of the new Israeli government

• The PA continues preparing itself for the declaration of a new government in Israel. To that end a meeting was held of the extended PA leadership in the Muqata’a in Ramallah, chaired by Mahmoud Abbas (Wafa, December 20, 2022). According to reports, the leadership plans to hold a series of meetings to discuss the steps to be taken, after having voted to immediately begin a broad “diplomatic and political campaign” [smear campaign] to deal with the new Israeli government. At the first meeting they discussed which political steps to take, focusing mainly on international institutions, especially the Security Council, the General Assembly, the ICC and the ICJ. They voted to appoint a committee to monitor the “diplomatic and political campaign” (al-Quds al-Arabi, December 20, 2022).

   
PA cartoons critical of the new Israeli government. Right: Benjamin Netanyahu buries the Oslo Accords, the negotiations, the idea of the two-state solution and the suspension of construction in the settlements. Left: Netanyahu and his government [sustained by extreme right-wing parties] (al-Quds al-Arabi, December 22 and 23, 2022).

Nabil Abu Rudeineh at the meeting of Arab media information ministers

• At a meeting of Arab media information ministers held in Tripoli, Libya, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the PA minister of media information, gave a speech that was harshly critical of Israel. He claimed the existence of Israel in the Middle East was a threat to Arabs everywhere. He also claimed the following:
  • The new government in Israel is extremist right-wing, worse than ISIS and can be compared to the Taliban.
  • The holy sites in Jerusalem are all Islamic and Christian and throughout history there has not been one single vestige of Judaism in the entire city [a patent untruth], despite the fact that for 70 years has excavated and looked for something, anything that can prove a Jewish existence in Jerusalem anywhere in history [sic].
  • Regarding United States policy and its support for Israel, he claimed the Israeli attempts, with American aid, to Judaize Jerusalem and eject its “original” Arab residents [sic] are an attack on the Palestinian narrative. He claimed the Israeli narrative, which received support from the United States and the West, attempted to position Israel as owning the land. The “truth,” he claimed was that there was no real basis in fact and that it was an attempt to “distort history.”
  • As for United States polity regarding the PA, he attacked US President Joe Biden, claiming that in effect none of his promises to Mahmoud Abbas had been kept, even after he visited “Palestine,” met with Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem and declared he supported the two-state solution.

Continuing reactions to the death of Palestinian prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid

• The death of security prisoner Nasser Hamid and the decision made by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz not to transfer the body to his family led to condemnation of Israel and threats:
  • At the meeting of the Palestinian leadership Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech claiming Israel was responsible for Nasser Abu Hamid’s death and claimed the government of Israel ignored the calls to release him while he was fighting his disease. He said they would launch an international campaign to tell everyone about the world’s historical and legal responsibility to provide the Palestinians with international protection. He claimed it was unreasonable for the world to remain silent and ignore “Israel’s crimes” (Wafa, December 20, 2022).
  • Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki said they were planning to give the file on Nasser Abu Hamid to the ICC for it to investigate the degree of Israel’s responsibility in his death (PA foreign ministry Facebook page, December 20, 2022).
  • Protest demonstrations were held in Judea and Samaria, and Palestinian demonstrators clashed with IDF forces in several locations (Wafa and the Arabs48 website, December 20, 2022). A demonstration was held in Ramallah where AAMB operatives declared the founding of the “masked lion unit;” “masked lion” was Nasser Abu Hamid’s nickname (Reuters, December 20, 2022).

    
Right: Palestinians riot in Hebron (Wafa Facebook page, December 20, 2022). Left: Armed, masked Palestinians march wearing headbands reading, “the masked lion” (Rasha Hirzallah’s Twitter account, December 20, 2022).

• A general day of mourning was declared in the Gaza Strip. Isma’il Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ political bureau, said Abu Hamid’s death would not go unpunished and the “resistance” [Palestinian terrorist organizations] would not hesitate to take all measures to release all the prisoners and every inch of “Palestine’s” land (Hamas website, December 20, 2022). Khaled al-Batash, a member of the PIJ’s political bureau, assigned Israel full responsibility for his death and called on Palestinians, wherever they were, to make Israel pay a high price (Safa and Paltoday, December 20, 2022). Senior PIJ figure Khader Habib said they were in favor of exacting revenge for the death of Nasser Abu Hamid. However, he added, it depended on an assessment of the situation by the “military wings” and the joint operations room in the Gaza Strip (Sabaq24, December 20, 2022).

   
Press conference of senior Hamas figures headed by Ahmed Bahar (extreme left), Isma’il Radwan (center, holding picture) and Tawfiq Abu Na’im (fourth from right), as well as by senior PIJ figures (Right: Safa, December 20, 2022. Left: Paltoday, December 20, 2022).

• PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh paid a condolence call to Nasser Abu Hamid’s mother, and Mahmoud Abbas spoke with her on the phone and offered condolences. The family decided they would not erect a mourning tent until his body had been transferred to the family and could be buried.

Fatah prepared to mark its 58th anniversary

• Fatah’s Central Committee held a meeting in Ramallah to discuss, among other issues, the subject of making preparations to mark the movement’s 58^th anniversary, which falls on January 1. They decided to hold the first activities on December 29, 2022, in Ramallah and east Jerusalem, and in the Gaza Strip on December 31, 2022. Other regions would hold events according to dates they decided on (Wafa, January 21, 2022). According to Ahmed Hilles, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee and head of its bureau of recruitment and organization in the Gaza Strip, the rally and torch-lighting ceremony in the Gaza Strip would be held in al-Katiba Squad in Gaza City at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on December 31, 2022 (Dunia al-Watan, December 22, 2022).

Rocks, Molotov cocktails and other attacks

• In Judea, Samaria and east Jerusalem Palestinians continued throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli vehicles driving on the roads. The more prominent events were the following:^[8]
  • December 25, 2022: Rocks were thrown at an Israeli bus west of Wadi Haramiya (north of Ramallah). No casualties were reported; the bus was damaged.

• • December 25, 2022: Rocks were thrown at an Israeli vehicle near the Hashmonaim Crossing (northwest of Ramallah). No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.
  • December 23, 2022: Rocks and bottles of paint were thrown at an Israeli vehicle near Jericho. No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.
  • December 22, 2022: Rocks were thrown at an Israeli vehicle in Hawwara (south of Nablus). No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.
  • December 22, 2022: Rocks were thrown at an Israeli vehicle in Funduq, near Qadumim (east of Qalqilya). No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.
  • December 22, 2022: Rocks were thrown from a passing car at an Israeli vehicle between the Along Junction and Migdalim (southeast of Nablus), No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.
  • December 21, 2022: Rocks were thrown at an Israeli vehicle in Arab Teqoa (southeast of Bethlehem). No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.
  • December 20, 2022: Rocks and a Molotov cocktail were thrown at an Israeli vehicle south of the Ma’aleh Lavona Junction (west of Ramallah). No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.
  • December 20, 2022: Rocks were thrown at an Israeli bus west of the Gush Etzion T-Junction. No casualties were reported; the bus was damaged.
  • December 20, 2022: Rocks were thrown at an Israeli vehicle near Bayt Ummar (north of Hebron). No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.
  • December 20, 2022: Rocks were thrown at an Israeli vehicle between Ma’aleh Shomron and Azzun (east of Qalqilya). No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.
  • December 20, 2022: Rocks were thrown at an Israeli vehicle south of Wadi Haramiya (north of Ramallah). No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.
  • December 20, 2022: Rocks were thrown at an Israeli vehicle near the Adam traffic circle (northeast of Jerusalem). No casualties were reported; the vehicle was damaged.