First Sgt. Yosef Kirma and Levana Malichi were murdered in the Oct. 9 shooting attack in Jerusalem, and six additional people were wounded. The perpetrator of the attack was well known by East Jerusalem residents as a prominent, assertive activist at Al-Aqsa Mosque. A week before the bloody attack, the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency had interviewed him by phone, at which time he spoke about his deeds and encounters with the “Zionist enemy.” The would-be assailant said that he was preparing to serve four months in an Israeli prison for attacking a policeman.

He had also been summoned for trial after being accused of incitement. In a December 2015 Facebook post, he wrote, “There are men who will redeem Al-Aqsa with their blood. Those Jerusalem youths who take part in the intifada — we should kiss the ground on which they tread. They are like lions fighting for their territory.” The assailant matches the profile of a Palestinian fueled by religious, Islamic fervor, who perpetrates terror attacks against Israelis.

The wave of terror that erupted in October 2015 began against a backdrop of clashes on the Temple Mount (the Haram al-Sharif to Muslims) and incitement on social networks. There were numerous posts on social media claiming that Israel was planning to change the status quo there — including restricting prayer times at Al-Aqsa Mosque to accommodate visits by Jews to the Temple Mount — and that right-wing Jewish activists were planning an attack on the mosque. It was against this background that Israel outlawed the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, led by Sheikh Raed Salah. The Israelis hoped that this would halt the incitement surrounding Al-Aqsa. Regardless of whether there is a connection, over the course of subsequent months it did not seem that Al-Aqsa served as the primary motive for Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Most of the Palestinians involved in the recent wave of attacks on Israelis left behind a “last will and testament” with religious messages invoking shahada (martyrdom) as a sacred value. Nevertheless, the members of Israel’s security services and those of the Palestinian security apparatuses argue that most of these attackers did not act out of religious zeal. Rather, they say, these youths were not devout Muslims — sometimes were even viewed as “half secular” — but had been motivated to kill out of desperation. They often believed that their actions would hasten the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and ensure their family members and peers a better future.