3,000 terror attacks in Judea and Samaria since January

(JNS) — Judea and Samaria saw more than 500 Palestinian terrorist attacks each month on average in the first half of 2024, according to figures Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) published on Thursday.

In the first six months of this year, first responders recorded 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges and 109 shootings.

Palestinian terrorists have killed 14 people and wounded 155 others in Judea and Samaria since the start of the year, according to the group.

Though the number of terrorist incidents recorded in Judea and Samaria saw a slight decrease compared to the first six months of 2023, the number of deadly incidents rose, Rescuers Without Borders said.

Rescuers Without Borders’s figures do not include the hundreds of violent attacks on Israeli security personnel occurring during ongoing counterterrorism operations in Arab towns under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Rescuers Without Borders was founded in 2000, at the beginning of the Second Intifada, with the goal of establishing an emergency response infrastructure in Judea and Samaria. Eventually, the organization expanded the scope of its operations to include all of Israel.

The organization released its biannual report on Palestinian terrorism amid another wave of attacks throughout Judea and Samaria.

On Wednesday morning, an Israeli man was seriously wounded in a combined shooting and stabbing attack at the Okfim Junction on the Route 60 highway near Kiryat Arba, on the outskirts of Hebron in Judea.

The previous day, Israeli troops foiled a terrorist attack close to the Beit Einun Interchange near Hebron. Troops killed the terrorist after he tried to stab them, the army said. No Israeli casualties were reported.

Last week, three Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded in a terrorist shooting on Route 55 close to Nabi Ilyas in western Samaria. First responders said the attack was carried out from a passing vehicle.

The Jewish population in Judea and Samaria has surpassed half a million people, according to research published earlier this year. There were 502,991 Jews living in Judea and Samaria as of Jan. 1, according to the report, which culled data from Israel’s Interior Ministry.

The Jewish population living beyond the 1967 line accounts for 12 percent of all Jews in Israel. The report projected the population in the region to exceed 600,000 by 2030, 700,000 by 2035 and one million by 2047.