Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, released statistics for July which revealed a significant spike in violence within the West Bank. Although overshadowed by the terror attacks from Gaza, the increase in the West Bank is troubling.
While 2,622 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza towards Israeli towns and cities in the month of July, there were also 424 attacks reported in the West Bank. This is an almost five-fold increase from the 89 attacks recorded in June. The escalation was particularly noticeable in Jerusalem, which recorded 83 attacks in July, up from only 11 in June.
Lost in the numbers were the 24 rockets fired from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula by Islamist terrorists sympathetic to Hamas.
The “sharp increase in attacks and riots” in the West Bank and Jerusalem also included 35 IEDs, 13 small arms shootings and 459 firebomb attacks.
In a West Bank terror attack this past weekend, an Israeli man who was injured when a rock thrown by Palestinians shattered the windshield of his car has taken a turn for the worse with doctors fearing that he may have suffered permanent brain damage.
Yeda’ayah Sharhaton, 25, was wounded while driving to his home in the West Bank settlement of Yatir, in the South Hebron Hills, after a large rock thrown by Palestinians shattered the windshield of his car and struck him directly in the face, according to Yedioth Ahronoth. Sharhaton, who was in the vehicle with his wife, Hadassah, and their one-year-old baby daughter, lost control of the car as a result of the attack, and it subsequently overturned, skidding into a ditch at the side of the road. Both Hadassah and the baby were lightly hurt.
A group of Palestinians from Beit Ummar who saw the crash rushed to the scene to help rescue the three Israelis from the overturned car. The group alerted IDF soldiers and called emergency medical services, who took the three Israelis to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem in Jerusalem for further treatment.
[Photo: Hamas supporters – IDFBlog Photo]