Tuesday's horrific terrorist attack in Beersheba is one of the gravest in five years. The eight-minute killing spree saw the terrorist – a Bedouin Israeli – kill four people and wound two others.
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Muhammad Abu Qi'an did not fit the average terrorism profile. At 34, he was on the older side, a father of five who worked as a high school teacher in his Negev hometown of Hura. Still, he was no innocent civilian: Abu Qi'an was a known ISIS sympathizer who served a four-year prison sentence in Israel after his plan to cross over to Syria and join the jihadi terrorist group was discovered.
This alone mandates the defense establishment, and especially the Israel Security Agency, to take a long, hard look at its protocols. As of Tuesday night, defense officials maintained that Abu Qi'an acted alone but the Shin Bet will have to answer a few questions, chiefly over whether he could have been stopped prior to embarking on a murderous rampage at the heart of one of Israel's largest cities.
More than a few situation assessments have taken place over the past few weeks over potential security escalation during the Muslim month of Ramadan, which this year coincides with Passover and other flashpoint dates such as the Nakba and the Naksa. All of them, however, focused on potential flare-ups in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem – not on the possibility that an Arab Israeli would go on a killing spree.
It is unclear whether the Beersheba attack will have any direct bearing on tensions in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem, but as the situation on the ground is already volatile, the main concern now is of a slew of copycat attacks, especially in the age of social media, where footage of the attack has gone viral instantaneously.
The concern over copycat attacks is compounded by other issues that could trigger a security escalation, including the erosion in the Palestinian Authority's status, the dire economic situation in the territories, and the overall frustration the Palestinians feel toward their leaders.
What the defense establishment finds most troubling is the attempts by Hamas to orchestrate terrorist attack in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem.
As expected, Hamas lauded Tuesday's attack, in what seems to be a ploy similar to its tactics from May 2021, when it was able to get Israeli Arabs to riot during Operation Guardian of the Walls.
Therefore, on top of their operations and vigilance on the ground, security forces will be required make it clear to Hamas in Gaza that it will not allow it to escalate the situation in Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem and possibly at the heart of Israel – especially if it expects goodwill gestures to continue.
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