Ramallah: With the security situation in Palestine dramatically deteriorating in 2015 and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict escalating, cases of “lone wolf” attacks against Israeli soldiers by knife-wielding Palestinian youths are expected to rise in the new year.

Support for violent methods of resistance is growing among a Palestinian population that sees no end to the Israeli occupation through diplomatic means.

Palestinian public support for the lone wolf attacks has recently risen dramatically. Such attackers, who pull a knife, often from their kitchens, and go out in search of martyrdom, commit acts of violence for political reasons. The attacks appear to be so random that they can neither be predicted nor stopped as long as Palestinians do not see hope for the future.

Violent clashes between Israelis and the Palestinians have increased in frequency since the occupation forces implemented punitive measures against Palestinians after a spate of lone wolf knife attacks.

Young Palestinians —the third generation to live under the Israeli occupation — have run out of patience as they watch the occupation forces pushing or beating Palestinian women for defending Al Haram Al Sharif of East Jerusalem from the Israeli incursions.

Palestinians are also angry and frustrated at the lack of political progress. Unemployment remains at 40 per cent, and lack of employment can lead to growing frustration and a sense of hopelessness.

Lone wolf attacks stoke tension and fear in Israel. Tens of thousands of Israeli police officers are out in occupied Jerusalem and around Israel to prevent sporadic attacks by Palestinian attackers. Israel erected concrete blocks at rail and bus stations, set up hundreds of vehicle checkpoints and launched a new fleet of helicopters and surveillance balloons overhead. The so-called ‘knife intifada’ has shattered the Israeli sense of security with the unnerved Israeli colonists hoping to avoid danger staying indoors. There are fewer people in the streets.

The environment of fear and intimidation that the violence creates has a serious psychological impact on Israelis. Israeli mental health specialists have reported that a large number of Israelis need to be provided with socio-psychological support. As stabbing attacks by Palestinians mount, those specialists have recommended a gag order be imposed on the media pictures and videos showing stabbing, vehicular attacks and the brutal execution of Palestinian lone wolf attackers by the Israeli occupation forces.

Israel appears to be unable to stop the increasing number of attacks, now occurring almost daily, resulting in retaliation. Analysts say the violence will likely escalate into a third Intifada. Israel, on the other hand, believes that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and its security forces could use their position to quell the violence.

The PNA, meanwhile, takes advantage of the increasing attacks and capitalises on its neutral position to enhance its negotiating position with the Israelis in the event the peace talks were resumed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas branded the wave of violence as a “justified popular uprising” and has never condemned the attacks, and did not cooperate with the Israelis to quell violence.

However, following several meetings between Israeli security officials and their Palestinian counterparts in undisclosed locations in the West Bank to discuss measures aimed at quelling rapidly escalating violence, Palestinian security forces, on unknown grounds, banned Palestinian stone throwers from reaching certain Israeli crossings but turned a blind eye on the youth reaching other crossings (there are one or two Israeli crossings or checkpoints in every city of the West Bank).

Some PNA leaders assume that the Palestinian security forces can restore calm when needed and therefore have enough time to invest in the escalating tensions politically, but other leaders fear it could spiral out of control allowing rival Islamist movement Hamas to take advantage and challenge the PNA position.

The PNA’s shaky “wait and see approach” can be risky and initially devastating because in the event that symptoms of the revival of the peace process become evident, and the Palestinian security forces use their position to stop Palestinian attacks against Israelis, Palestinians will rise up against their own leadership. “No one is in charge to say tomorrow we stop the attacks” is the unequivocal message from the Palestinian public, which is gaining confidence that its security forces will not side by Israel to defeat them and quell their intifada.