A wave of Palestinian terrorists targeting Israeli drivers across Judea and Samaria with rocks has surged since the May 14 murder of Tzeela Gez, Channel 14 News reported on Wednesday.

According to the broadcaster’s Judea and Samaria correspondent, Shirel Lalum-Nahir, stone-throwing terrorism has also been recorded in areas that were relatively quiet until the deadly shooting attack, including the Palestinian town of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya along Route 60 in Samaria.

“For one kilometer [0.6 miles], this road passes by the schools of the village, and the phenomenon of rock-throwing keeps happening again and again,” Lalum-Nahir said in the report. “We see it return after a period of calm, and residents really view this as a result of the attack.”

Avidan Beit Yaakov, the mayor of Eli, a nearby Jewish community with some 4,500 people, confirmed in a message to residents on Wednesday morning, “In the past week, several stone-throwing incidents took place on Route 60 in the area between Ash-Sharqiya and As-Sawiya.”

“I have spoken several times with the brigade commander and also with the division commander. I was informed that meaningful activities are being carried out to deter and change the reality,” Beit Yaakov stated.

“The operations include increased patrols in the area and enforcement activities of all kinds,” the local leader wrote. “I have expressed a firm demand that the security establishment address this issue.”

Israel Ganz, whose Binyamin Regional Council administers Eli and 50 other Israeli communities in southern Samaria, told Channel 14 that the military should “turn over” every Palestinian village from which stones are thrown, adding: “It should be done, and not wait even an hour.”

“When an enemy sees hesitation and doesn’t pay a heavy price, he keeps going and grows stronger,” said Ganz, who also leads the Yesha Council umbrella group that represents the 500,00 Jews of Judea and Samaria.

The IDF confirmed to JNS on Monday that it had started work on a fence around the Palestinian village of Sinji, located just south of Eli, in response to repeated rock-throwing attacks emanating from it.

In light of the “recurring terrorist incidents” in the area northeast of Ramallah, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit wrote in a statement, the army “decided to place a fence in order to prevent stone-throwing and public disturbances, thereby ensuring the safety of civilians in the region.”

Last year, the military also built a security fence surrounding the road that bypasses the Samaria terror hotspot of Huwara, outside Nablus.

Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO on Feb. 17.

Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report.

The figures, which were cross-checked against official data from Israel’s security services, included 3,668 instances of rock-throwing; 843 attacks with Molotov cocktails; 671 attempts to blind drivers with laser pointers; 526 explosive charges; 364 cases of arson; and 179 terrorist shootings.

Image - Israeli security forces near the Jewish community of Givat Assaf in Samaria, Sept. 11, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90