Stabbing as a terrorist tactic

Stabbing attacks became an increasingly common form of terrorist attack on random civilians in the 2010s.

Like the vehicle-ramming attacks that increased during the same time period, stabbing attacks are prevalent because they are easy for attackers to carry out and difficult to prevent given the level of personal armament prevalent in early-21st century Western societies.

According to security analyst Peter Bergen, stabbing attacks have gained popularity because such attacks are inexpensive and easy to carry out, but very difficult for security services to prevent.

In May 2016, Al-Qaeda's Inspire (magazine) published an article entitled. “O Knife Revolution, Head Toward America.” The magazine urged Muslim to kill “the intelligentsia, economic and influential personalities of America,” by low-tech methods including stabbing attacks on the grounds that such assaults are “easy options that do not require huge efforts or man power, but the result is parallel to the big operations or even more.”

In October 2016, Rumiyah, the online propaganda and recruitment magazine published by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) told followers that holy warriors down through Muslim history have “struck the necks of the kuffar” in the name of Allah, with "swords, severing limbs and piercing the fleshy meat of those who opposed Islam.” The magazine advised its readers that knives are easy to obtain, easy to hide, and deadly, and that they make good weapons in places where Muslims might be regarded with suspicion.

A wave of lone wolf terrorist stabbing attacks in which Palestinian Arabs attacked Israelis began on 3 October 2015 with the first of the Lions' Gate stabbings. The ensuing Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015–2016) is thought to have been driven not by formal organizations but, rather by social media postings inspiring young Palestinians to undertake attacks attacks with knives and with vehicles.

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Wikipedia