There has been a spate of such attacks in Jerusalem and elsewhere lately — and a billboard in Nazareth calling for them, but of course only AFDI billboards and advertisements are offensive. Last October the Islamic State issued this call to Muslims in the West: “If you are not able to find an IED [improvised explosive device] or a bullet … smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him. If you are unable to do so, then burn his home, car or business. Or destroy his crops.”
“Security forces arrest Islamic Jihad man on suspicion of running over 3 Israelis,” by Yaakov Lappin, Jerusalem Post, June 16, 2015:
Security forces arrested a 22-year-old resident of Hebron on suspicion of running over and injuring three Israelis at Alon Shvut Junction at Gush Etzion in May.
In a joint Shin Bet, IDF and Israel Police operation, Muhammad Arfaya, an Islamic Jihad member, was taken into custody, security forces announced on Tuesday.
During questioning, the Shin Bet said, the suspect confessed to acting on his own initiative to murder Israelis in Judea and Samaria.
He told interrogators that he set out on past occasions with a knife to stab Israelis, but that his efforts were unsuccessful.
The Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency said Arfaya’s actions were an instance of a lone-wolf, unorganized terror attack, the latest in a series of such attacks, which lack the support of an organization or co-conspirators.
Arfaya will be charged at the Judea Military court in the coming days with terrorism charges.