Intelligence services have thwarted some 250 ”significant“ terror attacks since the beginning of 2018, including suicide bombings, abductions and live fire, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said Wednesday.
To coincide with an international conference of homeland security professionals in Jerusalem, Shin Bet officials said in a statement that the terror threats are spread out across the Palestinian Authority. In contrast to the Second Intifada, however, during which Palestinian Authority bodies took an active role in planning and executing attacks, the Shin Bet said that the current challenge includes ”lone wolf“ attackers who respond to incitement or extreme language used by PA officials, television commercials or publications.
To combat both institutional and lone wolf terrorism, Shin Bet relies on ”critical human capital,“ as well as a range of tactics and technologies encompassing the realms of artificial intelligence and Big Data. That investment has given intelligence officers expanded abilities to predict terror attacks before they are carried out, rather than simply responding to attacks after they occur.
”As an organization that flies the flag of multi-faceted operations, ingenuity, strategic collaboration with relevant bodies in Israel and abroad, as well as with Israeli and foreign hi-technology companies, the Shin Bet is committee to scuttling ’traditional‘ terrorism as well as to using a variety of data-collection methods to preventing attacks,” a statement read.