Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) estimate, with great caution, that the wave of terror that broke out in October has been stopped. There are many reasons for the significant decline in terror attacks against Israelis and the motivations of would-be attackers. The most significant reason is Israel’s approach of restraint. This is an essential difference compared with the approach that led Israel to use excessive military force at the beginning of the second intifada (2000-2005), which exacerbated the situation by increasing the motivation of Palestinian organizations to gather forces and respond, and the support of residents of the Gaza Strip and West Bank for acts of revenge against the Israelis.

Israel and the PA don’t talk much about the successful security cooperation between the two sides, which has also helped to stop the wave of terror, at least for now. Most of the security cooperation focuses on the field of intelligence.

Unlike the past, these efforts aren’t targeted at the armed Palestinian organizations and terror activists in the territories, but at locating the “individual assailant.” Most of the recent attacks, excluding the attack on bus No. 12 in Jerusalem, which was attributed to a Hamas cell in Bethlehem, have been carried out by young people who did not belong to any organization.

At first, Israel and the PA believed that it would be difficult to impossible to foresee the intent to attack on the part of unaffiliated youths, and therefore also difficult to formulate an effective warning system.