Country Reports on Terrorism 2012

Jordan International Police Training Center, and at the Prince Hussein Bin Abdullah II Academy
of Civil Protection in Jordan.
Hamas continued to consolidate its control over Gaza, eliminating or marginalizing potential
rivals. Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza smuggled weapons, cash, and other contraband
into Gaza through an extensive network of tunnels from Egypt. Gaza remained a base of
operations for several violent extremist splinter groups, such as Tawhid wa Jihad and the
Mujahedin Shura Council; and clan-based criminal groups that engaged in or facilitated terrorist
attacks.
During the year, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
consistently reiterated their commitment to nonviolence and recognition of the State of Israel.
They continued to support a security program involving disarmament of fugitive militants,
arresting members of terrorist organizations, and gradually dismantling armed groups in the
West Bank.
In August, six Palestinians were wounded after a fire bomb was thrown at their vehicle near the
West Bank settlement of Bayt Ayin, and two Israeli settlers, both minors, were arrested by Israeli
authorities in connection with the crime. Israeli Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon described the
incident as a hate crime and a terrorist act. In July, UN officials and several local NGOs issued a
statement noting that Israeli settler violence against Palestinians had risen sharply, by nearly 150
percent since 2009. More than 90 percent of the complaints filed against settlers in recent years
have not been addressed, according to the UN. In 2011, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak
labeled settler acts as having “the characteristic of homegrown terror;” several months earlier,
IDF Head of Central Command Avi Mizrahi labeled attacks against Palestinians and their
property in the West Bank as “terror” and ordered the administrative deportation of a dozen
Israeli settlers from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. In 2012, four mosques in the West
Bank, and five churches in the West Bank and Jerusalem were vandalized in apparent “price tag”
attacks carried out by Israeli settlers in retribution for Israeli government actions they perceived
as against their interests.
There were multiple acts of violence conducted by different sub-state actors in the West Bank,
both Palestinian and Israeli, and Gaza-based militants attacked Israel. Attacks included:
In March, a 19-year-old female IDF soldier was stabbed while riding the Jerusalem light
rail in a suspected terrorist attack.
On March 31, four Palestinians were hospitalized after they were attacked by Israeli
settlers near the Mikhmas junction outside Ramallah.
On June 19, settlers reportedly set fire to the main mosque in the West Bank village of
Jabaa in Ramallah governorate.
On August 22, 17 year-old Palestinian Jamal Julani was beaten into an unconscious state
by a group of Israeli teenagers reportedly yelling racist slurs in Zion Square in Jerusalem.
Israeli vice premier Moshe Ya’alon condemned the incident as a terrorist attack.
On September 4, pro-settler vandals thought to be participating in a “price tag attack” set
fire to the entrance door of the Latrun Monastery outside of Jerusalem, spray-painting the
names of West Bank outposts and "Jesus is a monkey.”
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