Israel changes tactics to tackle street terror

Most of the recent attacks in the Old City of Jerusalem have been with knives, occasionally with guns and rarely now with bombs.

The pattern of individual “lone wolf” assaults matches those in the UK, France, Germany and Belgium. Many are carried out by one or two individuals, armed with knives and crashing into crowds or bus queues with hijacked vehicles. Israel is undergoing a continuous update of its counter-terror strategy, involving public awareness, new police and counter-terrorist force tactics and improved surveillance.

The fresh thinking has lessons from which Britain could learn as it also faces the threat of street terrorism, although the circumstances are very different. “London and Jerusalem are very different in scale alone,” says Micky Rosenfeld, the senior police liaison officer in Jerusalem. “You can cross central Jerusalem by motorbike in around eight minutes.”

In the past 18 months there have been 12 attacks near the Damascus Gate. Earlier this month Hadas Malka, a 23-year-old border police sergeant major, was fatally wounded when three men attacked officers at the entrance with a knife and home-made pistol. In all there have been 45 victims of lethal attacks since the autumn of 2015. Most were Israelis but two were American and one British. Last April exchange student Hannah Bladon, 20, was stabbed on a tram by a deranged man armed with a kitchen knife.

“Unfortunately, I think we really have to learn to live with this kind of terrorism — and just do everything to minimise its effect,” the commander at the Israeli Defence Force’s Counter Terrorist Training School explains. “Their tactics change all the time, and we must change ours.”

The commander, who declines to be named, says the public has to be made vigilant, though not anxious. He ventures that he thinks more public awareness is needed in Britain now.

But there are huge differences between Israel and Britain. He shows us practice videos of attacks at bus queues with crashing cars and knives. In most examples a bystander draws a weapon and shoots the perpetrator.

“We have 30,000 civilians bearing arms, which they are permitted to do after military service.” The large conscript army also provides back-up of manpower in an emergency.

Although it only has a population of eight million, Israel can call on a much larger reserve of security and specialist helpers than Britain ever could today. The other clear difference is the huge emphasis on surveillance of mobile phone and internet traffic. Of a national police force of 29,000, some 1,000 officers are involved in internet and social media surveillance, something that wouldn’t be allowed in the UK.

At Israel’s leading defence electronics contractor, Elbit, I am shown its latest communication and surveillance concept. It consists of a huge national data base, known as WIT — Wise Intelligent Technology – which can be summoned by the counter-terrorist commander. Another tool is a pod for a drone or helicopter called Skyeye, a multi-track camera that can be called on by a large number of security units at a time.

The new system allows different types of radio and phone — from UHF, VHF radios and walkie-talkies to the latest smartphone — to talk to each other. Moreover they can track a phone call, its origins and owner in an instant by using the WIT database. In Britain, following a row over identity cards, there is no such national database.

Last week the head of Israel Defence Forces, Lt-Gen Gadi Eisenkot, warned that the situation would get much more complex in the next 20 years. Here he had a powerful message for Britain, which has cut back on its public and armed services.

“We will have to adapt our forces for the future, their research and development platforms. But it is the people who ensure our future — and we will need more committed young people serving. We depend on them, and they should be properly rewarded.”