Yesterday, an Israeli woman was murdered, and an Israeli man severely wounded, in a drive-by shooting outside of Hebron. On Saturday, another terrorist killed a father and son at a carwash. The Israeli media has described these as lone-wolf attacks, since the perpetrators do not appear to be acting on direct orders from any known jihadist group. Nadav Shragai rejects this characterization:

The attackers may decide on their own where to strike and they do it on their own, but they drink from the same poisonous well that makes the killing of Jews kosher, be it because “al-Aqsa Mosque is being desecrated” or just in the name of Islam or the Palestinian cause. The incitement and hatred have no organizational affiliation.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), for its own reasons, may be assisting Israel in capturing dozens of killers but it has not lifted a finger in an effort to stop the worshiping of death and martyrdom. It has not stopped the explicit incitement to kill Jews for being Jews. It has allowed the continuation of terrorist glorification; it continues paying families of terrorists and has been memorializing them upon their death. Perceptually, it has been breeding terrorists and helping them grow, while occasionally helping Israel detain them in extreme cases.

Just last week, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center published a study showing that in the Palestinian textbooks issued by the PA, Israel doesn’t even exist. The study noted that the Palestinian prime minister recently took part in a ceremony honoring parents of “martyrs,” [i.e., Palestinians who lost their lives committing acts of terror], who were killed during the past year, and vowed that the PA would not bow to pressure by altering its subject matter, regardless of whether the donor countries will stop the funding spigot.

During the ceremony, there was even a picture shown of a “lone-wolf terrorist.”

Tamir Hayman analyzes the latest reports about an offer by Hamas to release three female soldiers in exchange for 150 captured terrorists, of whom 90 have received life sentences; then, if that exchange happens successfully, a second stage of the deal will begin.

If this does happen, Israel will release all the serious prisoners who had been sentenced to life and who are associated with Hamas, which will leave Israel without any bargaining chips for the second stage. In practice, Israel will release everyone who is important to Hamas without getting back all the hostages. In this situation, it’s evident that Israel will approach the second stage of the negotiations in the most unfavorable way possible. Hamas will achieve all its demands in the first stage, except for a commitment from Israel to end the war completely.

How does this relate to the fighting in Rafah? Hayman explains:

In the absence of an agreement or compromise by Hamas, it is detrimental for Israel to continue the static situation we were in. It is positive that new energy has entered the campaign. . . . The [capture of the] border of the Gaza Strip and the Rafah crossing are extremely important achievements, while the ongoing dismantling of the battalions is of secondary importance.

That being said, Hayman is critical of the approach to negotiations taken so far:

Gradual hostage trades don’t work. We must adopt a different concept of a single deal in which Israel offers a complete cessation of the war in exchange for all the hostages.