The intifada, the Palestinian uprising that was believed only a few months ago to have fizzled out almost completely, has come back with a vengeance in recent days, five years after it first erupted.
The latest round of violence, a combination of daring terrorist attacks and massive demonstrations, began early last week with the killing of three Israeli soldiers, whose vehicle came under fire on a road bypassing the city of Gaza.
A similar terrorist attack took place Saturday night in the West Bank, when terrorists opened fire on a military vehicle at the southern entrance to Hebron. An IDF soldier, Sgt. Yuval Tutanji, 24, of Eilat, was killed in the attack.
The Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement took responsibility for that attack, which was believed to be the work of its military wing, the Iz a-Din al-Kassam group.
Another Israeli was killed two nights earlier in a shootout with terrorists in the village of Anza, south of the West Bank town of Jenin.
Inspector Sasson Mordoch of an anti-terrorist unit of the border police, was fatally shot as the unit attempted to apprehend a wanted terrorist., Moussa Brahama, head of the Islamic Jihad movement in the Jenin area.
But most of the violence was centered in the Gaza Strip, where massive riots broke out over the weekend.
Three Palestinians were killed Saturday in clashes with the army, and at least 75 were wounded, as hundreds of residents of the Jabalya refugee camp stormed a military outpost and almost took it over. The soldiers needed to fire live bullets to deter the crowd.
Violence continued Sunday, leaving one Palestinian dead and at least 20 more wounded. Fifteen Israel Defense Force soldiers and border police officers were also injured in rock-throwing incidents.
Sunday’s riots began as masked men staged a nationalist parade at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The security forces dispersed the crowed by force, as most refugee camps in the strip continued to be under curfew.
Another terrorist incident was averted over the weekend, when a booby-trapped car was discovered on the Hebron Road in Jerusalem, shortly before it was to detonate. The car contained two gas canisters, each connected to an explosive charge.
The Israeli Cabinet, sitting as a ministerial defense committee, discussed the deteriorating situation Sunday.
Military experts expressed deep concern over the number of weapons in the hands of the terrorists and the fact that they are staging increasingly more daring attacks.
The opposition reacted angrily to the developments, accusing the government of failing to cope with the situation. The Likud Knesset faction decided Sunday to present the Knesset with a motion of no confidence in the government.
Moshe Katsav, chairman of the Likud Knesset faction, said there was a direct link between the gestures the government had made toward the Palestinians in the peace process and the escalation in the territories.
The Tsomet party said it was time to replace the government with a new government that would “safeguard the public’s safety.”
The far-right Moledet party demanded an interruption of the peace negotiations with the Palestinians and the immediate implementation of the death penalty for terrorist murderers.
Aharon Domb, a leader of the settlement movement in Hebron, said that the most frightening thing about the new situation was that “everybody was getting used to it,” as if terrorist attacks had become a matter of daily routine. He, too, blamed the government for having failed to address the situation adequately.
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