Lions' Gate stabbings

On 3 October 2015, a Palestinian resident of al-Bireh attacked the Benita family near the Lions' Gate in Jerusalem, as they were on their way to the Western Wall to pray. The attacker murdered Aaron Benita, the father of the family, and injured the mother Adele and their 2-year-old son Matan. Nehemia Lavi, a resident who heard screams and came to help was also murdered and his gun taken by the assailant. The attacker, 19 year old Muhanad Shafeq Halabi was shot and killed by police as he was firing on pedestrians.

Adele described Arab residents standing by and laughing as she was attacked, and telling her to "drop dead" when she pleaded for help for her son.

This attack and another stabbing attack, both of which took place during a religious festival that draws many Jews to the holy places in Jerusalem, resulted in Israeli authorities temporarily barring Arab residents of East Jerusalem from entering the walled Old City.

The attack came during a spate of unrest regarded by The Guardian as having begun in mid-September when a number of Palestinians "repeatedly barricaded themselves inside the al-Aqsa mosque and hurled stones, firebombs and fireworks at the police." This series of attacks against Israeli Jews is notable for consisting of what are being called "grassroots" attacks, often involving the throwing of Molotov cocktails and rocks, lone wolf terrorism, stabbings and vehicular assault as a terrorist tactic. This is taking place during a period when terror attacks sponsored by organizations have declined. This period has also seen the increasing prevalence of Jewish "price tag" operations, such as the arson attack that murdered three members of the Dawabsheh family in the West Bank village of Duma about two months ago.

Opinions about underlying causes of the stabbings vary. The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs attributes the stabbings to "incitement" by both radical Islamists and Palestinian government leaders, and, in particular, untruths being circulated about Israeli actions and false assertions that Israel intends to change the Status quo on the Temple Mount. According to The Guardian, many analysts regard the issue of access to what is known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount, as key to the recent increase in tension in Jerusalem. A campaign by some fundamentalist Jews and their supporters, with the backing of some members of the Israeli cabinet, demanding greater rights for Jewish worship at the site has raised the suspicion, despite repeated Israeli denials, that Israel intends to change the 'precarious status quo' for the site. Writing in The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg points to "Muslim supersessionism", the refusal of many Muslims to acknowledge that the Temple Mount is also holy to other faiths, and a parallel unwillingness to recognize that "Jews are a people who are indigenous to the land" of Israel.