Events this past week focused on the stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem and the vehicular attack in Gush Etzion. Three people were injured, a policeman (in Jerusalem) and two civilians (in Gush Etzion). The attacks followed the stabbing attack in Gush Etzion the previous week in which an Israeli was killed. In ITIC assessment the series of attacks can be considered as part of popular terrorism and not as organized by one of the established terrorist organizations. The two terrorist attacks were probably inspired by the lethal attack the previous week. They are probably copycat attacks, a familiar pattern in popular terrorism.

In the Gaza Strip terrorist operatives continue their attempts to penetrate into Israeli territory. On August 17, 2019, the Israeli security forces killed three terrorists attempting to enter Israel. They were variously operatives of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Fatah. While the attempt did not reflect official Hamas policy, senior figures in Hamas (and other terrorist organizations) publicly praised the operatives and blamed Israel for their deaths. Moreover, senior Hamas figure Isma’il Haniyeh paid a media-covered visit to the operatives’ families.

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