After Safest Year Since 1964, Israeli Man Murdered in Stabbing Attack

The last Israeli citizen murdered by Palestinian terrorists was 17-year-old Rina Shnerb, who was killed on August 23, 2019.

By TPS

After a year in which no victims had been murdered in terror attacks, a 39-year-old man was murdered earlier today in a terror attack in Petah Tikva.

The past 12 months had been the safest year of the past 56 for Israel. For the first time since 1964, 12 months passed without a single civilian killed in a terror attack in Israel.

The last Israeli citizen murdered was Rina Shnerb. Rina, age 17, who was hiking at the Danny Spring with her father and brother. She was murdered on August 23, 2019 by Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorists who detonated a bomb killing her and injuring her father and brother.

A second Israeli citizen was killed in a terror attack earlier that month, Dvir Sorek. Dvir was murdered on August 7, 2019 near his yeshiva in Gush Etzion. He was in the Hesder Yeshiva program which combines IDF service and Torah learning and had not yet worn a military uniform.

Although there were no civilians killed, the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) which tracks terror attacks, reports that there were 2,012 terror attacks in eleven of the past twelve months. There is not yet a report released for the current month. Of the 2,012 terror attacks, 864 attacks were in Judea and Samaria, 849 in the Gaza periphery, and 299 in the rest of Israel.

The Shin Bet report includes rock attacks, stabbings, vehicle ramming attacks, arson, Molotov cocktails, explosives, and shootings. Rock attacks were likely much higher than the Shin Bet numbers, as many go unreported or uncounted.

Since 2015, the Shin Bet reports a significant annual increase in the number of terror attacks prevented. In 2019, 564 major terror attacks were prevented, including four kidnappings, 10 suicide bombings, 78 stabbings, 353 shootings, 105 explosive attacks, and 14 vehicle rammings.