The head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service warned Monday of being complacent about the “relative calm” prevailing in the Israeli and Palestinian territories especially in the West Bank.
Speaking to parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman told lawmakers not to be fooled by the “current relative calm”.
The situation he said in remarks conveyed by Israel’s public Hebrew radio “is deceptive” claiming that Hamas and what he called global jihadists constantly try to attack Israel.
Argaman boastfully said the relative calm was the result of new “anti-terrorism” methods adopted by the Shin Bet.
“We have learned to confront individual terrorism and made changes thanks to technological operational and intelligence developments” he claimed.
Argaman added that Shin Bet had arrested more than 400 would-be assailants before they were able to take action.
Since the start of the Jerusalem Intifada (uprising) in early October 2015 dozens of individual counterattacks have been carried out by Palestinian citizens mostly young men in response to Israeli crimes against their fellow citizens and daily violations by Jewish settlers and the police at the Aqsa Mosque.
