JERUSALEM—Israel’s security cabinet decided Tuesday to send troops in to bolster police units in Israeli cities that have been stretched thin guarding against daily rounds of random stabbings by Palestinians, particularly in Jerusalem.
Three Israeli civilians were killed Tuesday in terror attacks in Jerusalem, and 20 were wounded, the highest toll in the past two weeks of violence.
For the first time in the current wave, an assailant used a handgun, rather than a knife. Two Palestinians boarded a bus in southern Jerusalem and began attacking passengers, one with a gun and the other with a knife, as soon as the bus began moving. Two passengers, one of them 78, were killed and about 15 others were wounded. An Israeli driving by saw the attack and blocked the bus’s route. A policeman and policewoman tried to board the bus but the attackers closed the door. The police fired through windows, killing one of the assailants and gravely wounding the other.
Meanwhile, in the center of the city, a Palestinian working as a technician for an Israeli telephone company drove a company van into a group of people waiting at a bus stop. Emerging from the vehicle, he began stabbing people he had knocked down. An Israeli guard at the nearby Geological Institute arrived at the scene and brought the attacker down with gunfire. A 59-year-old rabbi was killed in the attack and three other persons were wounded. The assailant himself survived in serious condition.
The two attacks, which occurred almost simultaneously, raised suspicions among security officials that for the first time the attacks were not carried out by "lone wolves," as all the attacks hitherto have been, but in a planned and coordinated fashion. Apart from the simultaneous timing, the two assailants on the bus and the driver of the van all came from the same village, Jebel Mukaber, from which a number of terrorists have come in the past. The van driver was a relative of two terrorists who entered a Jerusalem synagogue last January and killed four men at their morning prayers.
The upscale Tel Aviv suburb of Raanana, which had never before been the scene of a terrorist attack, experienced two attacks Tuesday morning, each by one man wielding a knife on a main street. Five Israelis were wounded in the attacks, which came about an hour apart, one seriously and the rest lightly. The attackers were subdued by passersby and beaten before police arrived to take them into custody. Both attackers were residents of East Jerusalem, again raising the possibility of a pre-planned operation.
Security officials praised the alertness and courage of members of the public in confronting attackers on a number of occasions. In many towns, parents have organized guard rosters to protect schools, kindergartens, and community centers in addition to whatever guards there might be. Most parents now drive their children to and from school instead of letting them walk. Shops have been selling pepper spray and other items that might be used in defense.
The Jerusalem Post carried an interview with a martial arts instructor, Yonatan Graber, offering practical advice for confronting someone wielding a knife. In addition to shouting to draw the attention of people nearby and trying to kick the assailant in the groin, the civilian should use his forearm to block a knife thrust, said Graber, not his palm, and move towards the attacker to try to wrest the knife away. "If you move back, the attacker will continue stabbing and gain momentum on you. Try to go forward and place both of your hands on the attacker’s hand that is holding the knife."