In the Gaza Strip there was a decrease in the number of participants at the events of the “return march” (the 40th) on Friday, December 28, 2018, compared with the previous week.

One Palestinian was killed. The following day (December 29, 2018) a rocket was fired into Israeli territory, carrying out the terrorist organizations’ threat to Israel. In response the Israeli Air Force attacked a Hamas post in the southern Gaza Strip.

In 2018 about 1,130 rocket and mortar shell hits were identified in Israeli territory, almost all of them since May 2018. The rocket fire is a function of the violence of the “return marches” which began on March 30, 2018. Its scope is the largest since 2008 (with the exception of Operation Protective Edge in 2014).

This past week there was a vehicular attack in Samaria (no casualties were reported). It brought the number of significant terrorist attacks in December to nine, the highest in 2018. The high number of terrorist attacks was the peak of the escalation that began about three months ago. Most of the attacks were carried out by “lone wolf” terrorists as part of popular terrorism, but it is also possible that there is an organized squad (or squads) operating on the ground, responsible for the shooting attacks.

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