In less than a month, Palestinians have committed seven acts of terror against Israeli soldiers and civilians on the West Bank and developed a new terror conspiracy against the Israeli population living next door to the Gaza Strip. Hamas is one common factor in the latest outbreaks. There is another: Two of the most recent attacks were perpetrated by Palestinians whose brothers died in the commission of former terrorist strikes. Did those brothers rise up spontaneously on a whim with no guiding hand?

• IDF forces today found and defused a single powerful explosive charge that had been planted by terrorists near the security fence that separates Israel from the central part of Gaza in the Kissufim area. The troops from the 51st Golani brigade found the explosives during routine operations on the border, and bomb-disposal engineers detonated the device in a controlled explosion.
• 2 mortars fell in the Golan Heights a short while ago near Tel Faris. Both came from across the Syrian border. Thankfully no injuries were reported but there is still no information whether there was property damage or not. The army estimates that they were launched by the Syrian army at the rebels and entered Israel accidentally.
• A Palestinian Authority Arab drew a knife and threatened the Israeli driver of a bus at around 8:00 PM Sunday evening. Terrified passengers scrambled for cover as the man ran down the length of the bus in Beit Shemesh trying to stab fellow travelers. There were no injuries in the incident, but one ultra-Orthodox man said the attacker sliced off one of his sidelocks. Video from a security camera inside the bus aired by Channel 2 News shows pandemonium as passengers try to escape the assailant. Police and security forces continued searching for the man on Monday morning but no arrests had been made.
• A Palestinian Authority resident Arab man was shot and injured Saturday while attempting to infiltrate Meitar. Soldiers fired on Mashni’s lower body in an attempt to stop him without killing him. He was then taken to an Israeli hospital in Be’er Sheva for treatment on both feet where he was shot.
• According to new information reported by Channel 2, the man brutally murdered outside his home in the Jordan Valley last week, Sraya Ofer, had encountered his Arab murderers two weeks earlier, when they approached his home. They aroused his suspicion in that encounter and he reported the license number of their car to police. After the murder, a police investigator who checked Ofer’s cell phone found the record of the call he had made to police. Investigators listened to the recording of that call, and based upon the license plate number of the car Ofer reported, they were able to track down his killers.
• Hamas has officially claimed responsibility for the the digging of the terror tunnel from Khan Younis to Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha under the Gaza-Israel border. Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Islamist group’s military wing, said in an interview that the movement’s armed brigades “dug the tunnel, they were responsible for it.” The Israeli military said the tunnel, dug in sandy soil, had been reinforced with concrete supports. Israel responded by halting the transfer of building material to Gaza.Daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot wrote Friday that Israel had known for over a year about the terror tunnel that Hamas was digging into its territory, but let Hamas leaders continue to pour resources into it.
• The uncle of the Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist, who was shot dead after trying to carry out an attack in an IDF base, claimed on Friday that his nephew got lost and did not intend to carry out a terror attack. The attempted attack occurred at about 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, when al-Ubeidi broke into an IDF base at A-Ram, north of Jerusalem, driving a tractor. The terrorist crashed the gate of a base near the Kalandia Checkpoint in the northern capital, south of PA-occupied el-Bireh.

Sources: Haaretz.com; Israelnationalnews.com; Timesofisrael.com; Channel 2; Debka.com; Walla.co.il; Ynet.co.il; Nana10.co.il; TheYeshivaWorld.com; Nrg.co.il