2,000 policemen were sent to reinforce Jerusalem on Monday after a terrorist stabbed two Haredi young men near the Central Bus Station. Earlier on Monday, a Palestinian terrorist was shot and wounded while attempting to stab an IDF soldier at the Gush Etzion Junction.

Major attack thwarted

In addition, security officials announced that a “major attack” had been thwarted on Monday. Details were not being released. Channel 12 and 13 reported that the security forces has prevented several attacks but were on alert due to concerns that Jerusalem would be targeted by terrorists during the holiday of Yom Kippur.

“I don’t know if we are on the verge of an escalation,” Public Security Minister Omer Barlev told the Kan public broadcaster. “But we are definitely in a very sensitive period — the recent attacks, the escape of the terrorists from the prison and the two who have not yet been caught, alongside our problems with Hamas.

“Any incident could set off the entire area, so we are preparing for an escalation in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza,” he said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.

Escalating violence

The security situation in Israel has been tense on several fronts recently. Last Monday, six terrorists escaped from Gilboa Prison in northern Israel via a tunnel. Four of the prisoners were captured but two remain at large. 

Israeli security officials told the media that they were concerned that if the two convicted terrorists who remain at large are shot in the course of their capture, the Islamic Jihad terror group will resume rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. 

Four rockets were fired at southern Israel over the course of three days beginning on Friday night. 

Hamas terrorists have also increased arson balloon attacks over the last two weeks, sparking fires in southern Israel.

Hamas began holding weekly Day of Rage riots on Israel’s southern border three weeks ago.  Barel Hadaria Shmueli from Beer Yaakov in central Israel was shot in the head at point-blank range by a Palestinian rioter in a riot three weeks a go. Shmueli later died from his wounds.