Israeli police secure the crime scene. Yahoo/AP
A Palestinian stabbed at least 11 people in the city of Tel Aviv, Israel before being shot by police. Yahoo/AP. Police described the attack as a "lone wolf" terrorist attack. The man was riding on a bus when he suddenly stabbed people, including the bus driver. Nearby officers with a prison service saw the attack and shot the suspect, wounding him in the leg. 11 people were stabbed with 3 in critical conditions. The suspect has been identified as a Hamza Mohammad Matrouck, who was in the country illegally. The latest attack is the last in a series of lone wolf attacks in Israel. No group took responsibility for the attack but Hamas praised the attack on Twitter.
My Comment:
Ugh, I hate writing about Israel. It is one of those topics that just brings out the worst kind of people on the internet. It's like circumcision, feminism or the death penalty, people are just to pissed off about the subject and invested into one side or the other to have a rational discussion on the internet. People care way too much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and most posts on the internet that even tangentially talk about the conflict are magnets for the worst people on the internet.
That being said, I think I can make an exception in this case given the severity of the attack and the international pattern of lone wolf/low scale terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists. I guess you could debate that this attack had secular causes as well, but for the sake of argument (and sanity) I'm going to ignore that. Either way though, there have been an large uptick in these kinds of knife/gun attacks lately. It seems that terrorist organizations have given up on the spectacular 9/11 style attacks and have changed focus to these smaller attacks.
The benefits of these smaller attacks is obvious. With a huge 9/11 style attack, a thousand things can go wrong that can destroy your whole operation. You can lose dozens of operatives and whatever money you put up for no gain. With a small attack with a couple of gunmen you have much less risk and more bang for your buck. And if the small attack works it can inspire lone wolf attackers that can help your cause at no cost to you whatsoever. Plus these kinds of attacks are incredibly hard to defend against before a bunch of people get hurt. Unless you are in a place where people conceal carry firearms, you can still stab 11 people even if there are cops right next to you. This is obviously a bad trend and I see it continuing in the future, and not just in Israel.
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