In the last few weeks, all indicators pointed to a decrease in terrorism in Judea and Samaria: the number of attacks and victims decreased, including more "elementary" terrorism such as stone-throwing, and data showed that Israel's counterterrorism efforts were yielding results.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
But Tuesday's terror attack in Ariel showed once again that statistics is one thing and reality is another. Although it was perpetrated by a terrorist who was not known to security forces – and even had a legal permit to work in Judea and Samaria – it highlights several problems, some of which warrant an immediate solution.
The first and foremost such issue is the duration of the attack. It lasted for 16 minutes and was perpetrated in three different areas, which is an unreasonable amount of time until the terrorist was eliminated. Ariel is an area where the number of weapons per square meter – belonging to soldiers, security guards, and civilians – is one of the highest in the world, and it is worrying that eliminating the attacker took so long.
The second issue is the function of the security guard at the entrance to the Ariel industrial area, where the attack began. Although we are not talking about a fighter from an elite unit, his role as a security guard is exactly that: to act when necessary and neutralize the threat. His claim that he was afraid of harming civilians sounds reasonable, but avoiding an accurate shot to kill the terrorist led to more severe consequences.
The security forces must find a solution to this problem, especially given the daily friction in the area between thousands of Palestinian workers who interact with Israelis. Perhaps the number of security guards should be increased in order to create deterrence and enable a more effective response in the event of a terror attack.
The third issue is the preparedness – or lack of – of the guards. Just on Tuesday, criticism was leveled at the performance of forces (including security guards) in an earlier attack, in which Stg. Loa Nazar was killed. The IDF and Israel Police should honestly ask themselves whether there is a systemic problem concerning the quality or training of the security guards, and if so – address it.
The main concern following Tuesday's attack is that it could inspire other such attempts. This is a familiar pattern both because images of the attack widely circulated on social media and because terror groups push Palestinians to harm Israelis. And although Tuesday's attacker had no affiliation with any terror organization, his death is likely to be a model for others.
In order to prevent this, the IDF will flood the area with forces, with an emphasis on the main points of friction. This is how the IDF was able to curb previous terror waves in the past decade, including counterterrorism operations based on intelligence.
It is how the IDF destroyed the Nablus-based Lion's Den terror organization's explosives lab a few weeks ago, after having eliminated some of its senior members, following which the group rushed to surrender their weapons and hand themselves over to the Palestinian Authority.
Such action undermined institutionalized terrorism, and now it seems the IDF has to respond to an equally complicated challenge of lone-wolf terrorism.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
