Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: July–December 2015

The broader context for the violence of late 2015 lay in the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which had ended in April 2014.[1] Tensions had been building across multiple flashpoints since then, and the summer of 2015 saw several precursor incidents that foreshadowed the more intense wave of attacks that erupted in the autumn.

On July 3, rockets were fired from the Sinai Peninsula toward open areas in Israel's western Negev. An intelligence assessment attributed the launch to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, also known as the Islamic State's Sinai Province; no casualties or damage were reported.[2] On July 8, Hamas's military wing held a display in Gaza City on the eve of the first anniversary of Operation Protective Edge, exhibiting two rockets it said it had manufactured with improved capabilities, while the south of Israel remained quiet that week.[3] Stone-throwing and Molotov-cocktail incidents continued during this period in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.[3]

On July 18, a Palestinian stabbed two Israeli soldiers on Route 60 between Gush Etzion and Hebron, lightly wounding both; one soldier shot the attacker, who later died of his wounds.[4] An incident chronology also records that on July 10 a gunman shot at a car near Tekoa, wounding an Israeli driver, and on July 19 a Palestinian stabbed two soldiers with a screwdriver at al-Arroub Refugee Camp, moderately wounding them.[4]

On July 26, Israeli National Police clashed with approximately 20–30 young Muslim worshippers who had stayed overnight at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, contrary to site regulations, and then confronted Jewish visitors the following morning — Tisha B'Av.[5] Police made several arrests. Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel also visited the site that day, prompting criticism within the governing coalition and calls by some coalition members to reverse the ban on non-Muslim prayer.[6] The episode took place against a background of broader tensions between Jewish and Muslim activists at the site.[5]

Israel Security Agency statistics recorded 105 attacks in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem in July, compared with 123 in June — 63 in Judea and Samaria and 42 in Jerusalem — with most involving Molotov cocktails and the figures excluding stone-throwing incidents.[7] August saw 168 attacks, compared with 105 in July: 117 in Judea and Samaria and 51 in Jerusalem, 136 of which involved Molotov cocktails; 12 people were wounded during the month, including five Israelis slightly wounded in stabbing attacks and three soldiers wounded in a vehicle-ramming attack.[8] An almost daily pattern of attempted attacks was reported during August, including stabbing attacks against soldiers on August 15 and an attempted stabbing at Tapuah Junction on August 17, and clashes on and around the Temple Mount had become daily during the month of Tishrei.[9]

Restrictions on Muslim access to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif were also imposed beginning in late August, including an approximately eight-week period of age restrictions on at least 27 days during 2015; Israeli authorities cited security concerns, while the Waqf and Palestinian Authority objected that restrictions imposed without Waqf coordination breached the status quo.[10] During this period, Waqf officials reported more than a dozen instances from late August to early October in which Jewish visitors performed religious acts such as prayer or prostration despite the policy prohibiting non-Muslim worship.[10]

On September 1, an Israeli soldier was shot and wounded while guarding Joseph's Tomb.[4] On September 5, two Palestinian youths carrying large knives were arrested at the Cave of the Patriarchs.[4] A Palestinian driver was shot and killed after accelerating toward police in Shuafat on September 6.[4] On September 16, an Israeli soldier was injured in an attempted stabbing at a Hebron checkpoint, while a separate attempted vehicle attack near Kiryat Arba left the male driver dead and the female passenger injured.[4] A September 19 stabbing injured a police officer and a man in Jerusalem, and several attempted attacks were recorded in the Hebron area on September 20.[4]

A major act of Jewish extremist violence during this period occurred in the early hours of July 31, when firebombs were thrown into the Dawabsha family home in Duma, a Palestinian village in the West Bank. A second home was also set alight.[11] Eighteen-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha died in the fire. His father Saad died of his injuries on August 8, and his mother Riham died on September 6; their four-year-old son Ahmad was critically burned and survived.[12] Hebrew graffiti reading "Revenge" and "Long Live King Messiah" was found at the scene.[12]

The attack was immediately condemned by Israeli and Palestinian leadership alike.[12] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it "a terror attack in every respect," and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon called it "a serious terror attack."[11] The Israeli government subsequently authorized security officials to use administrative detention and "all means necessary" to pursue the suspects, and ministers moved to expedite legislation against Jewish terrorism.[11] On September 9, Defense Minister Ya'alon said it was highly probable that "an extreme group of Jews" had committed the attack.[12] Israeli authorities arrested several alleged Jewish extremists in early December in connection with the firebombing; among those later identified in the proceedings was Amiram Ben-Uliel, who was indicted for the murder, with an unnamed teenager charged as an accomplice.[13] A later account reported that one of the accused had confessed to planning the attack and described it as revenge for the killing of Malachi Rosenfeld.[14] The Palestinian Authority said it held the Israeli government responsible for the attack.[11]

The UN secretary-general publicly condemned the attack and expressed condolences; his statement linked it to settler violence, the lack of a political process, settlement policy, and house demolitions.[15]

The autumn escalation followed a series of confrontations at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem during the Jewish High Holiday season. The Congressional Research Service connected the unrest to Palestinian objections to Jewish visits during that period, including a visit by Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, and to broader concerns about possible changes to the site's historic arrangements.[1]

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, September 13, masked Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the al-Aqsa Mosque and stockpiled stones to disrupt Jewish visits during the holiday period.[16] Israeli forces seized pipe bombs at the site and police entered after protesters threw stones and firecrackers near the Mughrabi Gate; dozens of Palestinians and at least 14 police officers were injured over three days of confrontations.[17] Hamas described Israeli actions as a "declaration of war," while Israel said it was acting to maintain the status quo and address rioting.[17] Another wave of clashes was reported on September 18, following calls for a "day of rage," with confrontations in East Jerusalem, at Qalandiya and Rachel's Tomb, and elsewhere in the West Bank; about 10 Israeli security personnel and several dozen Palestinians were wounded.[8]

Also on September 13, Israeli driver Alexander Levlovitz, 64, died after stones were thrown at his car in East Talpiot, Jerusalem, as he drove home from a Rosh Hashanah meal, causing him to lose control and crash.[18] Two other passengers were lightly injured.[18] The Shin Bet and police later apprehended those responsible, residents of the nearby village of Sur Baher; four Palestinian youths were arrested.[19][20] Contemporary reporting noted that investigators were examining whether his death resulted directly from the crash injuries or from a heart attack; later accounts described it as a fatal stone-throwing attack.[18]

On September 17, Agriculture Minister Ariel visited the Temple Mount again; Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and Knesset members Miri Regev and Oren Hazan made statements supporting Jewish prayer at the site.[10] On September 21, approximately 2,000 Israelis visiting Joseph's Tomb in Nablus were attacked by about 60 Palestinian teenagers; an IDF response coordinated with Palestinian Authority security forces prevented serious injury.[21] On September 29, a rocket fired from Gaza was intercepted by Iron Dome above Kibbutz Nitzanim, with sirens sounding in Ashdod and surrounding areas and no damage reported; the group calling itself the Amr Hadad Brigade, described as associated with ISIS cells in Gaza, claimed responsibility.[22] The Israeli Air Force struck four Hamas infrastructure targets in Gaza in response early on September 30, with the IDF holding Hamas responsible for rocket fire from the Strip.[22]

On September 30, a stabbing attack at Kalandia Checkpoint seriously injured an Israeli soldier; the Palestinian attacker was shot and killed.[19] That same day, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UN General Assembly, stating: "We cannot continue to be bound by these signed agreements with Israel and Israel must assume fully all its responsibility as an occupying power."[21]

In September, Israeli National Police also began keeping a list barring some female Muslim worshippers from the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount for alleged harassment of Jewish visitors; the report says those women had no recourse to appeal through the police or Israeli courts.[23]

Demolitions in Area C reached a five-year monthly high in August: Israeli authorities demolished 131 structures in 34 incidents, displacing 201 people.[12] Palestinian homes, cisterns, and other structures in areas under Israeli civil control faced demolition if they lacked Israeli planning licenses.[12]

October 2015 saw the most intense surge in attacks of any month in the period. The Israel Security Agency counted 620 attacks, compared with 223 in September — 485 in Judea and Samaria, 117 in Jerusalem, 11 originating in Gaza, and seven within the Green Line.[24] Eleven people — 10 Israelis and one foreign national — were killed and 80 were injured; 42 stabbing attacks, 24 shooting attacks, 57 incidents involving improvised explosive devices or grenades, and three vehicle-ramming attacks were recorded, alongside hundreds of firebomb attacks.[24] The tallies excluded stone-throwing incidents.

The wave intensified on October 1 when Hamas terrorists shot and killed Eitam and Naama Henkin as they traveled in their car near the West Bank settlement of Itamar, in front of their four children, who were uninjured.[12][19] Israeli forces later arrested five members of a Hamas cell from Nablus in connection with the murders.[12] The attack concentrated existing unrest — previously focused on the Temple Mount and East Jerusalem — more broadly across the West Bank and into Israel proper.[25]

On October 3, Muhannad Halabi stabbed Aharon Banita-Bennett, 22, and Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, 41, near Jerusalem's Lions' Gate. Halabi then took a gun from one of the wounded and fired at arriving Border Police officers, who shot and killed him at the scene. Banita-Bennett's wife was seriously injured and their two-year-old child slightly injured.[19] Both Banita-Bennett and Lavi died of their wounds.[19]

On October 7, attacks spread further: in Jerusalem a Palestinian woman stabbed a man at Lions' Gate; an IDF soldier was stabbed on a bus in Kiryat Gat; a woman was injured by stone-throwers in Gush Etzion; and a 25-year-old Israeli was stabbed outside a shopping mall in Petah Tikva, with civilians subduing the attacker.[26] On October 9, a 17-year-old Jewish Israeli stabbed two Palestinians and two Israeli Arab citizens in Dimona, describing the attack as retaliation for Palestinian attacks on Israelis in East Jerusalem in late September and early October.[6]

On October 10, Israeli security forces fired on Palestinian demonstrators approaching the Gaza border fence, killing seven and injuring 60.[12] On October 12, four attacks were reported in Jerusalem over roughly 12 hours, including a stabbing in Pisgat Ze'ev by two teenagers aged 13 and 15 that seriously injured a 13-year-old boy and a 25-year-old man — one attacker was killed and the other neutralized — and a stabbing on a bus near the Chords Bridge.[27]

October 13 saw some of the most lethal attacks of the month. In Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, two attackers boarded bus 78 carrying a gun and a knife and attacked passengers; two passengers — Chaim Haviv and Alon Govberg — were killed at the scene, and Richard Lakin, an Israeli-American educator, died of his injuries approximately two weeks later, bringing the bus attack's confirmed death toll to three.[19] The second attacker was arrested. Separately that day, a driver struck people at a bus stop on Malchei Yisrael Street and then got out and attempted to stab passersby; Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishavsky was killed.[28] Two stabbing attacks also took place in Ra'anana the same day, wounding several people.[19] Prime Minister Netanyahu convened an emergency Cabinet session that morning.[28]

Earlier, on October 8, Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered police to bar sitting ministers and Knesset members from visiting the Temple Mount, saying the prohibition would help calm tensions; the order drew objections from Joint List members and some Jewish Knesset members.[6] On October 14, Israel announced new security measures, including temporary checkpoints, closures, and barriers in some East Jerusalem neighborhoods, restrictions on certain Palestinians' access to the Holy Esplanade, and the deployment of military personnel to maintain order in cities.[1]

On October 16, approximately 100 Palestinians threw Molotov cocktails and set part of Joseph's Tomb in Nablus on fire, causing significant damage; Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack.[19] On October 18, at the Beersheba central bus station, 21-year-old Palestinian Muhanad Alukabi took an Israeli soldier's rifle, killed soldier Omri Levy, and injured 11 others; police killed Alukabi at the scene.[19] In the chaotic aftermath, an Eritrean asylum seeker named Habtom Zerhom was shot by a security guard and then beaten to death by bystanders who apparently mistook him for a second attacker.[19]

On October 20, Avraham Asher Hasano was struck by a truck after Palestinians threw stones at his car in Hebron.[19] On October 22, two Palestinian men, one identified as a Hamas member, carried out a stabbing in Beit Shemesh.[19] On October 23, a firebomb attack on a vehicle near Beit El badly injured a four-year-old girl, who suffered burns to 35 percent of her body.[19] On October 24, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met separately in Amman with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah and announced measures intended to reduce tensions at the Temple Mount, including the installation of cameras at the site and a commitment that Jews would not pray there.[29]

Accounts differed over the causes of the October surge. Israeli officials linked the spike partly to Palestinian fears that Israel intended to change the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount status quo and to incitement by senior Palestinian Authority figures; Palestinian Authority representatives, by contrast, said attackers were largely motivated by frustration over occupation and the lack of a political horizon. The same State Department report noted that most perpetrators appeared to have no organizational affiliation.[5]

Attack rates declined from the October peak but remained at an elevated level throughout November. The ICT recorded 326 incidents in November, compared with 620 in October, including 249 involving firebombs.[30] Nine Israelis and one Palestinian were killed in attacks, and 58 people were injured; most attacks were characterized as stabbings, vehicle attacks, or shootings by individual assailants.[30]

On November 2, stabbing attacks were reported in Rishon LeZion and Netanya.[5] On November 13, a gunman fired at a vehicle carrying seven family members near Otniel in the south Hebron area; Rabbi Yaakov Litman and his 18-year-old son Netanel were killed, while the rest of the family sustained minor wounds.[31]

November 19 was particularly deadly. In Tel Aviv, a Palestinian attacker stabbed two Israeli Jews, Aharon Yesayev and Reuven Aviram, to death at the entrance to a Judaica store in the Panorama Building during afternoon prayers, seriously injuring two others; the attacker was apprehended.[19] In Gush Etzion the same day, a gunman opened fire with an Uzi into a traffic jam, killing Israeli Yaakov Don, American tourist Ezra Schwartz, and Palestinian Shadi Arafa, and wounding seven others, five of whom were American yeshiva students.[19]

On November 21, four people — a man, two women, and a 13-year-old girl — were stabbed in Kiryat Gat.[32] On November 22, Hadar Buchris, 21, was stabbed at a Gush Etzion bus stop and died soon after reaching hospital.[19] On November 23, 18-year-old Israeli soldier Ziv Mizrahi was fatally stabbed at a gas station on Route 443 near Beit Horon; a female soldier was lightly injured and the attacker was shot and killed.[19][33] The same day, two Palestinian teenage girls, aged 16 and 14, attacked a man in his 70s with scissors near Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market; he was later reported to be Palestinian, and the girls had apparently mistaken him for an Israeli.[19]

On November 3, the Knesset passed a law imposing a mandatory minimum three-year sentence for people who throw rocks at Israelis.[19] Israeli and Palestinian security services continued to coordinate in response to the attacks throughout this period; the Palestinian Authority Security Forces, Israel Defense Forces, and Israel Security Agency together thwarted scores of lone-offender attacks, particularly from October onward.[5]

Violence continued throughout December, concentrated around Hebron, Jerusalem, and the Ramallah area, with stabbing, shooting, and vehicle-ramming attacks recorded on multiple days.[34]

On December 3, a Palestinian gunman opened fire at an Israeli military checkpoint on the road between Hizma and Anatot; a 47-year-old Israeli Arab civilian was seriously injured and a soldier lightly wounded, and a soldier at the checkpoint shot and killed the attacker, identified as Mazen Ariba from Abu Dis, who reportedly served in the Palestinian General Intelligence Service.[35]

On December 7, a man was critically wounded in a stabbing near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron; the attacker was shot and killed.[34] Genadi Kofman, who had been wounded in that attack, died of his injuries on December 30.[19] After a rocket hit was identified in the western Negev on December 13, Israeli aircraft struck two Hamas targets in Gaza.[36]

On December 14, a Palestinian driver rammed a group waiting at a bus stop at the entrance to Jerusalem on Herzl Street, injuring 11 people, including a 15-month-old infant whose foot was nearly severed and required microsurgery.[36][37] Sources reported a range of 11–14 injured in total.[37] The driver was shot and killed at the scene.[36]

On December 19, a Palestinian man stabbed four people on Anilevich Street in Ra'anana — a man in his 40s was moderately wounded and three women were lightly wounded; the attacker, a 20-year-old from Tammun near Jenin who was in Israel without authorization, was later caught in a nearby courtyard.[38]

On December 23, two Palestinians from the Qalandiya refugee camp attacked passersby with knives near Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. Rabbi Reuven Biermacher was killed; a second man, Ofer Ben-Ari, also died after being struck by a stray bullet fired by Border Police officers during the response. Both attackers were shot and killed by police.[19]

Attacks continued through the final days of the month. On December 31, a car-ramming incident between Hawara and Tapuah on Route 60 lightly injured a soldier, and a stabbing near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron left an Israeli man very critically injured; in both incidents the attacker was shot and killed.[37] By December 29, a cumulative ITIC count for the ongoing campaign had reached 25 Israelis killed.[39]

Multiple sources attempted to quantify the violence of the period, though their tallies differ by reporting date, methodology, and the categories of deaths they include.

Shin Bet data later identified 2015 as the deadliest year for terrorism since 2008.[19] A Shin Bet-derived year-end account reported 28 people killed in attacks in 2015, compared with 20 in 2014; 24 of those deaths occurred in October–December and four in the first nine months of the year.[40] The Hebron and Etzion areas accounted for 12 deaths and Jerusalem for 10.[40] A Maariv year-in-review reported 25 Israelis killed in terror attacks; the Ynet statistical account's total of 28 includes 22 Israeli civilians, two foreign civilians, one Palestinian civilian, and three security personnel — the difference appears to reflect differing definitions of victim categories.[41] The Jewish Virtual Library separately records the annual total as 28: two foreigners, one Palestinian, three members of Israeli security services, and 22 civilians.[19] Most attacks used stabbing or vehicle-ramming methods, while most deaths resulted from shootings.[40]

The State Department's religious-freedom report gives a total of 127 Palestinians and 22 Israelis killed between October 1 and the end of December on both sides of the Green Line, with an additional 20 Palestinian fatalities in Gaza during the same period.[23] A separate Jewish Virtual Library religious-freedom report covering Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza gives 127 Palestinian and 16 Israeli fatalities for the same October 1–December 31 period.[10] The human-rights report uses a different account, stating that Israeli forces killed 127 Palestinian civilians from October 1 through year's end — including 77 reportedly carrying out or attempting attacks — and that Israeli forces killed 149 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem during all of 2015.[12] These figures employ differing geographic scopes, victim categories, and time periods and should not be treated as directly interchangeable.

An October 22 Wall Street Journal estimate relayed by the Congressional Research Service reported at least nine Israelis and 50 Palestinians dead in the weeks of violence — an earlier snapshot than the later full-quarter tallies.[1] By November 22, Magen David Adom reported 22 people killed and 192 injured, with 82 treated for anxiety, in the roughly two months from September 13 onward.[20]

Separately, Israeli settler violence also continued throughout the year. UN figures cited by the State Department recorded 224 attacks by violent extremist Israeli settlers in 2015 that caused Palestinian injuries or property damage, compared with 324 such attacks in 2014.[5]

Israeli authorities took several security and legislative measures in response to the wave of attacks. Following the Duma arson in July, the Cabinet authorized the use of administrative detention against suspects and moved to expedite legislation against Jewish terrorism.[11] On October 8, Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered police to bar sitting ministers and Knesset members from visiting the Temple Mount, citing the need to reduce tensions at the site.[6]

On October 14, Israel announced a broader package of security responses, including temporary checkpoints, closures, and barriers in some East Jerusalem neighborhoods, restrictions on some Palestinians' access to the Holy Esplanade, and deployment of military personnel to maintain order in cities.[1] On November 3, the Knesset enacted legislation imposing a mandatory minimum three-year prison sentence for throwing rocks at Israelis.[19]

Israeli and Palestinian security coordination continued throughout the period. The Palestinian Authority Security Forces, Israel Defense Forces, and Israel Security Agency worked together to thwart scores of lone-offender attacks, particularly during the heightened violence beginning October 1.[5] Israeli forces also arrested five Palestinians affiliated with Hamas in connection with the October 1 Itamar killings.[12]

In response to rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli aircraft struck Hamas targets on multiple occasions. Following the September 29 rocket interception above Kibbutz Nitzanim, the air force struck four Hamas infrastructure targets in Gaza early on September 30.[22] Following a rocket hit identified in the western Negev on December 13, Israeli aircraft struck two Hamas targets in Gaza.[36]

Several aspects of the events of July–December 2015 were publicly and politically contested, and sources differ on a number of points.

The starting date and label for the autumn wave of violence are not uniform across sources. An ITIC retrospective dates the escalation to the September 13–14 stone-throwing incident that killed Alexander Levlovitz.[42] The Israel Security Agency's October monthly report described October as the beginning of a wave of terrorism, while a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs account treated the October 3 Old City stabbing as the start of a new phase even as it traced the broader escalation to mid-September.[21][24] These sources document different ways of marking the beginning rather than a single uncontested date. Labels including "terror wave," "stabbing intifada," and "lone-wolf attacks" likewise reflect different descriptions of the violence.[30][19]

The causes of the escalation were also vigorously disputed. Israeli officials cited Palestinian fears about changes to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif status quo and incitement by senior Palestinian Authority figures; Palestinian Authority representatives cited frustration over occupation and the absence of a political horizon. The State Department noted that most perpetrators had no organizational affiliation.[5] The Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research's account notes that Palestinians who barricaded themselves inside al-Aqsa during Rosh Hashanah understood their actions as defending the pre-2000 status quo and opposing division of the compound.[16] Accounts of the September Temple Mount clashes involved sharply disputed claims about the site's status quo and the reasons for police entry.

The Duma firebombing generated specific controversy over attribution, political responsibility, and the timing of official conclusions. The investigation was still incomplete when the UN secretary-general issued his condemnation, and his statement linking the attack to Israeli settlement policy was disputed by the cited commentary as premature.[15] On September 9, Defense Minister Ya'alon stated it was "highly probable" that an extreme group of Jews had committed the attack, framing it as likely but not yet legally established.[12]

Fatality statistics for the period vary depending on who is counted, which geographic area is included, and what date range is used. Two Jewish Virtual Library religious-freedom reports give different Israeli death totals for October 1–December 31 — 16 versus 22 — and the reports covering Palestinian fatalities use differing geographic scopes and victim categories.[6][10] The Shin Bet October report itself contains a minor internal discrepancy, giving 483 firebomb attacks in its summary and 482 in its detailed breakdown.[24] Sources also differ on the November 19 Tel Aviv attack, with one account describing one death in a synagogue attack and another recording two people killed at a Judaica store or prayer site in the Panorama Building.[5][19] The December 14 Jerusalem ramming attack is similarly reported with a range of 11–14 injured, reflecting differing contemporaneous accounts.[37]