Following a series of terrorist attacks over the past week, concern is mounting within Israel’s security establishment over a significant deterioration in the security situation in Yehuda and Shomron, with some officials already warning of the possibility of an intifada.

According to an Army Radio report, security officials have identified a shift in Palestinian behavior and are warning that “the Palestinians’ fear barrier has been broken.”

According to those officials, the common thread linking the weekend’s incidents is the growing willingness of Arabs to gather in large numbers and confront Jews entering Palestinian villages.

The security establishment believes this trend carries the potential for a significant escalation.

According to the report, one of the scenarios being discussed in security assessments is a broad popular uprising by Palestinian villages against Jews, involving mass violence, the seizure of weapons, and attempts to attack Israeli communities and farms.

Security officials say the concern more closely resembles the patterns of the First Intifada than those of the Second Intifada.

The security establishment also views Friday’s terrorist attack as another indication of changing operational patterns on the ground and warns that if the trend continues, it could lead to a much broader escalation.

Meanwhile, at least five incidents of Jewish nationalist crime were reported overnight, including the arson of a mosque, the burning of vehicles, and an attempted arson attack on an occupied home in the village of Beit Furik. According to the report, the family noticed what was happening and escaped the house before it caught fire, preventing a tragedy.

According to a report by Kan News, Jews set fire overnight to a mosque in the Shomron village of Qusra and spray-painted the words “Revenge Binyahu” on a nearby structure, two days after the deadly terrorist attack near Havat Gilad in which Binyahu Mellet, H’yd, and IDF officer Maj. Yuval Ezra, H’yd, were killed.

Palestinians also reported that Jews attacked a stone-crushing facility in Ein Samia overnight and set fire to all the heavy equipment in the area of the village of al-Mughayyir, near Ramallah.

The IDF said in a statement that “forces searched for suspects who fled before their arrival and identified the arson and the graffiti,” adding that “the security forces strongly condemn incidents of this kind, including harm to religious institutions.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)