Terrorism makes January Israel’s bloodiest month since June

Five Israelis were killed in January by Palestinian terrorists, making the month the deadliest since June 2016, according to Israel’s security service.

The Shin Bet recorded a total of 100 attacks in January, which left 16 wounded, according to its monthly report published earlier this week.

Four of the victims were killed in Jerusalem on Jan. 8 when the assailant drove his truck into a crowd of soldiers. One man was killed the previous week in Haifa.

Of the attacks documented last month, 81 involved the hurling of firebombs. December 2016 had seen 98 attacks.

Israeli forensic policemen and security forces inspect the site where a Palestinian man drove at a bus stop in an attempted car-ramming attack before being shot dead, near the West Bank settlement of Adam, east of the West Bank city of Ramallah, on January 25, 2017. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

Separately, on Thursday, Palestinians accused a driver they claim is an Israeli settler of deliberately hitting a Palestinian man with his car at the entrance to the West Bank town of Beit Ummar, near Hebron.

Rafat Muhammad Shihdeh Abu Arrar Masalmeh, 36, was struck while approaching the parked car of his brother on the shoulder of the road, according to a report by the Palestinian Ma’an news agency. The report did not specify his condition or name the driver.

The report quoted a man described as a “local activist” of saying the settler hit Masalmeh deliberately and then fled the scene.

According to the report, Israeli police later questioned the driver, who reportedly said he hit Masalmeh by accident.