Palestinian violence in Gaza is becoming so routine, few Israeli politicians, especially those representing the government, even mention it anymore. But over the past year, a sharp rise in bloodshed in Judea and Samaria, has caused some observers to wonder if the Jewish state is in the throes of the "Third Intifada."

According to a report issued by the Israel Security Agency (ISA), there was a 150 percent increase in terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria during 2006. The agency believes that, just like in Gaza, a great deal of the terrorism in Judea and Samaria is overseen by Hezbollah.

"Hezbollah gathers intelligence on Israel through the use of agents and accomplices working for the organization and from open sources as well. Among others, the organizations uses criminal elements, tourists, and even Jews and Israelis," said the ISA report.

According to the report, in the summer of 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah tried to spur terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria to carry out attacks against Israeli targets in order to open another front against the Jewish state in addition to the continuing rocket attacks from Gaza and Lebanon.

Since the end of the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah has focused its operational activity on areas within the Palestinian Authority while seeking to enhance its involvement and support of the various cells. According to the ISA, Hezbollah has been especially eager to instill its methods of operation from the Second Lebanon War.

The report noted that many of the 80 terror cells active in Judea and Samaria are now being aided and advised by Hamas leaders from Gaza, even though the cell members are, for the most part, affiliated with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (the so-called military wing of Fatah, President Mahmoud Abbas’s own faction of the PLO) or Islamic Jihad. Especially in Samaria, Gazan Hamas members have been involved in the handling, operation, and guidance of terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria.

"Command centers in the Gaza Strip provided [Judean and Samarian] cells with the know-how of how to upgrade their weapons-making capabilities, including high-trajectory weapons. They also guided their terrorist activity and provided them with money in order to fund this activity," said the ISA report.

During 2006, approximately 5,000 terrorists were arrested in Judea and Samaria; 279 of those arrested were potential suicide bombers, compared to 154 potential suicide bombers in 2005—an increase of approximately 80 percent.

Record numbers of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria were indicted by Israel’s military courts on charges ranging from rock-throwing to murder.

Since the beginning of 2007, Israeli security forces have uncovered in or near Shechem (Nablus) 16 explosive devices and two explosive belts, all intended for suicide bombing attacks.

The ISA said the increasing number of potential suicide bombers who were arrested before they could execute their plans reflects the Palestinians’ increased motivation to carry out suicide attacks, especially in Samaria. However, it also points to Israeli security services’ increased proficiency. Despite the many attempts by terrorist organizations to carry out suicide attacks against Israeli targets, the number of actual attacks decreased.

Israel’s security wall has obviously served as a deterrent against terrorism from Judea and Samaria into Israel proper. Because it is so difficult to penetrate the fence to carry out suicide attacks, terrorist organizations try to initiate attacks from regions in which the fence has not yet been completed.

Some of the terrorists have learned to rely on Palestinian illegal day-laborers who have become expert at finding infiltration routes into Israel.

According to Yuval Diskin, director of Israel’s General Security Service (GSS or Shabak), one of the "great achievements" for PA terrorists in Gaza is "that they have been able to create a feeling of normalcy in rocket attacks."

In Judea and Samaria, he said, PA terror groups—especially the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad—are trying to emulate Hamas in Gaza and build rockets capable of hitting Jewish areas.

"Thus far, thanks to our penetration in the field, we are able to prevent that, but, nevertheless, there is a competition [among the PA groups] to be the first to fire a rocket," said Mr. Diskin.

The increased terrorist activity is being funded by large sums of money that are transferred to the terrorist organizations. According to the ISA, the terrorist organizations have developed a variety of methods to smuggle money from abroad to fund their activities.

In 2006, Israel arrested many terrorists involved in smuggling activities, and the money was confiscated.

Throughout the Western world, organizations that helped fund terrorists were outlawed as part of the consolidated effort in the fight against financing terrorism.

According to reports in the Palestinian press at the end of March, the situation was sufficiently severe to prompt the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ask for "a reciprocal truce."

"The contemplated reciprocal truce is an Israel project, a project presented to us by the Israeli government with a view to establishing a reciprocal and simultaneous truce," PA President Mahmoud Abbas told Israeli television.

He dismissed warnings from some quarters in Israel that such a truce would merely be used by Palestinian terrorists to rearm.

"If Israel had not considered it useful, it would not have proposed it," said Mr. Abbas, adding that the truce "must be mutual."

Mr. Abbas has been proposing such a truce between Israel and the PA for months. Last fall, he reportedly asked all Palestinian factions to "calm down" their activities in Judea and Samaria, hoping the short-term ceasefire, called a tahadiyeh in Arabic, could be implemented there.

Thus far, that request has not been honored. For the Palestinians, a truce would require Israel to halt security and police measures, an action Israel’s security officials have said would leave too many Israelis in harm’s way.

All previous ceasefires between Israel and the PA have been broken by various Palestinian factions. On paper, there is still a ceasefire between the PA in Gaza and Israel, but ever since the agreement was finalized last fall, there has not been a day in which Israeli communities, such as Sderot and Ashkelon, which neighbor Gaza, have been spared Palestinian Qassam rocket attacks.

Mr. Olmert has, thus far, refused to retaliate against Hamas for any ceasefire violations in Gaza. Many observers blame his low approval numbers on his lack of response coupled with what many see as his disdain for the plight of Israelis in the affected communities.

GSS chief Diskin said PA terrorist groups across the board are taking advantage of Israel’s promise not to carry out military operations in Gaza and are smuggling tons of explosives and weapons across the border with Egypt. In 2006, he said, PA terrorists and smugglers brought 31 tons of explosives into Gaza, six times as much as was brought in 2005.

Many IDF intelligence experts have said that Hamas is using the "ceasefire" in Gaza not only to fire at Israelis, but also to rearm in preparation for a new round of increased violence.

Now the experience in Gaza seems to be repeating in Judea and Samaria where, since last February, Palestinians have returned to the tactics used in the first Intifada in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.

Israeli security forces’ re-entry into PA cities such as Bethlehem and Shechem in 2002 dramatically reduced the number of shooting attacks originating from those areas since the start of the second Intifada, sometimes called the Oslo War, in 2000. But over the past several months, rock-throwing and firebomb attacks have been on the rise, along with the suicide bombing attempts.

The Olmert government’s "good will" measures, taken reportedly at the behest of the Bush administration, to ease the Palestinians’ travel restrictions and lower the presence of the IDF in PA areas, have done little to decrease the level of violence. If anything, the measures seemed to encourage the terrorists.

One of the terrorists’ stated goals in Judea and Samaria is to kidnap Israelis—preferably soldiers—who can then be used as bargaining chips to effect the release of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel.

On February 4, IDF forces arrested three Hamas terrorists from the Ramallah area who attempted to kidnap Israeli citizens at the Eli Junction hitchhiking post in southern Samaria. The terrorists, each about 20 years old, admitted that their attempt, which was foiled by the alertness of one of the intended victims, was designed to obtain hostages.

The terrorists, two of whom had only recently been released from Israeli prisons, were captured at the Birzit Bridge, near Ramallah.

The arrested terrorists said they had bought guns and a stolen car, and planned to hide their hostage in a cave near their house. They said they planned to kill him if he tried to resist.

According to the GSS, 2006 saw an increase in both attempted and successful kidnappings.

Last month, a member of the PA legislative body openly called on Arabs to kidnap more Israeli soldiers.

According to a report in the PA-controlled Al Ayyam, Fathi Hamad, a Hamas member of the PA’s legislative council, told a Gaza organization that supports Arab prisoners that "the kidnapping of the soldier Gilad Shalit hit Israel very hard."

According to the report, Mr. Hamad then "demanded the kidnapping of more Israeli soldiers in order to force Israel to free the prisoners."

Mr. Hamad stressed it was the responsibility of the government, the Legislative Council, the armed factions, and military wings to dedicate "all the efforts at their disposal to free the prisoners."

Israel has fought back against this Third Intifada in a number of ways. For one week, between the end of February and the beginning of March, IDF counter-terrorists engaged in an operation in Shechem code-named "Hot Winter." In the Arab city, dubbed by many Israeli security personnel "the Palestinian terror capital," "Hot Winter" allowed Israel to capture approximately 120 terrorists, discover and detonate at least three bomb-making laboratories, and destroy several anti-tank missiles and roadside bombs.

According to a top officer in the Judea and Samaria division, the IDF employed a new "policy of restraint" while operating inside the city, doing its best to avoid violent encounters with the civilian population.

The officer suggested that "the relatively low level of resistance" offered by Shechem’s Arab residents during the operation, reflected the fact that Palestinian civilians were also opposed to the terrorists who destabilize normal life within the city.

"The residents of Shechem suffer from terrorists of Fatah and Islamic Jihad almost as much as we do," he said, adding that the IDF tried to coordinate the operation with local Palestinian leaders and international organizations.

According to some reports, the stepped up efforts by the IDF to arrest active terrorists have prompted more than a few wanted Palestinians to turn themselves in. On March 7, Anaas Subhi Hashaash, a 21-year-old member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from Shechem, heeded the advice of his family and friends and surrendered himself to Israeli soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint.

The IDF had raided his family’s home several times in the past few months, looking for Mr. Hashaash.

Salah al-Jarami, a friend who is also a Fatah activist from the Balata refugee camp, approved, calling it "a wise decision."

"He’ll go to jail for a few years, but he’ll save his life and stop his family’s misery," Mr. al-Jarami told Yediot Achronot.

Mr. al-Jarami said other terrorists, including his own brother, have been surrendering themselves recently.

"I tell all these young men in their 20s that if they have not gotten into real trouble yet, nobody will be angry at them if they turn themselves in. I tell them: You are young and you have your whole life ahead of you. It is your right to save yourself," he said.

According to Yediot Achronot, a high-ranking commander of the Al Aqsa Brigades admitted that the life of a wanted terrorist is "full of hardship, unbearable at times, and not everyone is up to it."

"We back our activists, whatever their choice may be," he told the paper, stressing that "this does not mean we have decided to pack it in."

"The fight is not over. If political efforts fail, the whole thing might explode again and our commitment to the ceasefire will end," he said.

While "Hot Winter" came to an end in early March, the unrest in Judea and Samaria did not.

At the beginning of March, a 55-year-old Jewish resident of Samaria was shot by a terrorist in a drive-by attack. An Arab car overtook him on a road near the PA-controlled city of Kalkilyah, east of Kfar Saba and Ra’anana, and at least one of the occupants shot him.

Although he was wounded in the hand, the victim managed to drive until he reached an IDF checkpoint, where he was treated and evacuated to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba.

Earlier in the day, Arabs in the Hebron area had hurled rocks at an Israeli car, causing damage but no casualties.

Four Arabs were arrested by Israeli police in Samaria on charges of breaking and entering into homes in the Jewish community of Alfei Menashe. The four were found with tools used to pick locks, and, when questioned by Israeli police, they admitted to the charges.

On March 7, IDF forces raided a PA General Intelligence building in Ramallah, netting 18 wanted terrorists who, for months, had been using the building as a hideout. The Israelis also uncovered seven pipe-bombs, an M-16 rifle, three pistols, a grenade, IDF flak jackets, and other military equipment.

The terrorists, all of whom were associated with Fatah, Mr. Abbas’s own faction of the PLO, surrendered only after a joint IDF-GSS team surrounded the building with some 30 military jeeps.

According to Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, Israel had repeatedly asked Palestinian authorities to stop the 18 men from carrying out terrorist attacks, including recent ones targeting Israeli vehicles. The Palestinian officials not only did nothing to thwart the attacks, they permitted the men to take refuge in the intelligence compound.

The situation was reminiscent of events between 2001 and 2004, when the late PA leader Yasir Arafat took refuge in his headquarters, the Mukata, emerging only to travel to Paris in November 2004, where he died.

The PA intelligence building is part of a compound in Ramallah that includes the Mukata.

According to the IDF, the 18 terrorists who had been holed up in the building were responsible for perpetrating or organizing nearly 25 shooting attacks against IDF soldiers and civilians as well as several attempted kidnappings. Six Israelis were wounded in those attacks.

According to a report by Aaron Klein in WorldNetDaily, the arrested terrorists were all members of Fatah’s intelligence unit, which, this past January (before Fatah signed its coalition agreement with Hamas), received a shipment from the US of 7,000 assault weapons.

The unit was slated to be infused with funds from a pending $86 million American grant, but, in February, that was placed on hold by Congressional leaders who asked the State Department to clarify whether Palestinian terror groups might have access to some of the funding.

While the American money has been at least temporarily blocked, it is unclear if US weapons will continue to be transferred to Fatah.

Although Mr. Olmert had first denied that any American weapons were coming to Fatah, he conceded last June that he was allowing the transfer of arms presumably so that Mr. Abbas’s forces could continue to strike back at Hamas during the conflict that was beginning to look like a Palestinian civil war.

"I needed to approve the shipment to help bolster Abbas," the prime minister told reporters.

At the time, Abu Yousuf, a Fatah militant from Mr. Abbas’s Force 17 security unit, told WMD that while some of the weapons were slated to be used against Hamas, the bulk of the American arms would utilized to "hit the Zionists."

Force 17 troops serve as de facto police units in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.

Mr. Abu Yousuf told WMD that, in the event of a major conflict with Israel, the US weapons provided to Fatah would be shared with other "Palestinian resistance organizations."

"The first place of these US weapons will be to defend the Palestinian national project, which is reflected by the foundation of the PA. If Hamas or any other group under the influence of Iran and Syria wants to make a coup d’etat against our institution, these weapons are there to defend the PA," said Mr. Abu Yousuf.

He maintained that Fatah did not seek a civil war with Hamas "because this is what both the US and Israel want."

If the American arms were used against Israelis, he told WND, it would not be the first time. Mr. Abu Yousuf admitted that previous shipments of American arms supplied to Fatah were used in "resistance operations" against Israel.

The only way Israel could avoid that scenario, he said, is "a withdrawal from Palestinian lands, including east Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, remove all the checkpoints in the West Bank, release our prisoners, and find a clear solution for our refugees."

If Israel capitulates, he said, Fatah would "control our forces and the distribution of weapons."

"But if Israel doesn’t deliver, and we find ourselves manipulated by Israel, we cannot guarantee members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Force 17 will not use these weapons against Israel. Our goal is to end the occupation," he said, adding that it would be "unnatural to think these American weapons won’t be used against the Israelis."

According to some reports, 16 of the 18 terrorists arrested in Ramallah were officers of Fatah’s intelligence unit as well as declared members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade terror organization. Mr. Sneh, however, said that although the 18 were once members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, they had severed those ties and were currently paid by Iran through Hezbollah in Lebanon.

According to the WND report, the IDF refrained from entering an adjacent PA Intelligence building run by Fatah intelligence chief Tafiq Tarawi, even though the IDF had information that several more wanted terrorists were inside. According to WND, Mr. Olmert had promised Mr. Abbas that Israel would not disrupt Mr. Tarawi’s work.

Among those who were arrested was Khalil Shilo, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade who has been a fugitive since the outbreak of the Oslo War in 2000.

In other, simultaneous IDF operations, 13 terrorists were arrested, including three near Jenin, four in Nablus, and one in Hebron.

One day later, in eastern Jerusalem, two terrorists armed with knives attempted to stab a Jewish civilian. The intended victim managed to escape, and one of the terrorists was arrested by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near the community of Yitzhar, when they discovered he was carrying a knife and a pipe bomb. Sappers detonated the explosive device safely.

But the Arabs were not through. Near Lions Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, a 45-year-old tourist was attacked in his car by Palestinians hurling rocks. He was injured and taken by ambulance to a Jerusalem hospital.

In Atarot, north of Jerusalem, two IDF soldiers were also injured in a rock-throwing attack, as were other Jews traveling on highways throughout Judea and Samaria.

As they did in the earlier uprisings, the PA-based terrorists have begun attacking Israeli ambulances as well. Members of the Jewish community in Hebron reported that a gang of Arab teenagers has engaged in rock-throwing incidents for more than a month. When they attacked an ambulance in the middle of March, the side window was broken, but the driver was not injured.

According to a security officer in the area, the army had done nothing to try to catch the stone-throwers.

The practice of stoning ambulances became even more serious later in the month when a snow storm led to a fatal car accident near Hebron. Rabbi Avi Cohen-Or, 42, and his wife, Simcha, 38, were killed when their van slid on ice at the Beit Anoun Junction and collided with a bus on the slippery highway, killing the couple and critically injuring their daughter, Gitit.

Ambulances rushing to the scene came under attack by Palestinians who hurled rocks and bricks at the rescue vehicles as well as at motorists who were stuck in the ensuing traffic.

Rabbi Cohen-Or was the founder and dean of the Netiv-Dror Yeshiva.

On March 11, it was reported that IDF forces had succeeded in preventing two shooting attacks targeting the Jews of Gush Etzion and the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa.

The attacks had been planned in Gaza by the Popular Resistance Committee, a terrorist logistical planning group consisting of all the Arab terror groups operating in the PA.

The attacks were thwarted when IDF soldiers in Bethlehem arrested three terrorists who had been involved in the implementation of the attacks.

That same day, however, an Arab woman in Hebron was arrested by Israeli border police. She had been attempting to carry out an attack with a 10-inch knife at the Cave of the Patriarchs. She told investigators she had intended to stab a soldier.

The night before, Palestinians had stoned an Israeli car near Hebron. The car was damaged, but the Jewish motorists were unharmed.

The experience was the same for a Jewish motorist driving near the Hawara checkpoint near Shechem. Arabs hurled rocks at the car, but the passengers and driver escaped unharmed. The vehicle was damaged. A bus was later targeted at the same location, with no damage or injuries reported.

Near Ramallah, a Jewish woman was injured by rocks thrown at her car from the Arab village of Luban a-Sharkiya. She was treated at the scene while IDF forces searched for her attackers.

The agreement between Hamas and Fatah to form a coalition government for the PA did nothing to lessen the terrorism attacks against Israel. Less than 24 hours after the power-sharing arrangement was signed, soldiers at the Beit Iba checkpoint, west of Shechem, discovered a 16-pound bomb being smuggled out of the northern Samarian PA-controlled city.

The soldiers also discovered more explosives, a gas balloon, and spraying material.

Two Palestinian young men, apparently intending to carry out a suicide bombing, were arrested. It was unclear where the attack was planned to take place.

In that same 24-hour period, Palestinians attacked Jewish motorists driving in Gush Etzion, damaging a vehicle near Bethlehem. The passengers were not harmed.

A bus and car were attacked with rocks and bricks near Hebron. No injuries were reported, but the bus was damaged in the attack.

An IDF soldier was lightly wounded when a bomb exploded next to a military jeep in the Balata refugee camp in Shechem. The soldier was wounded by shrapnel pieces and evacuated to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah.

A few shooting incidents occurred near the scene of the explosion, but no other injuries were reported.

On March 19, at the Hawara Checkpoint near Shechem, a young Israeli female soldier thwarted a terrorist attack at the hands of a Palestinian woman armed with a knife.

Cpl Shani Kohen, 19, said she grew suspicious of the woman when she refused to answer simple questions. When the Palestinian woman began approaching Ms. Kohen, the latter told her to stop.

"She was nervous, shaking, and called out to me to come near her. I understood something was amiss. At that point, I told the security officers to keep an eye on her," said Ms. Kohen.

When the soldiers asked about her intentions, the Palestinian woman began running towards the troops and drew her knife.

According to Ms. Kohen, a Palestinian man, whom the soldiers had been checking, positioned himself between the troops and the Palestinian woman, telling the soldiers not to hurt her because she was "mentally unwell."

The incident ended with her arrest, but no injuries. She told IDF troops she had intended to kill an IDF soldier manning the check post.

Ms. Kohen credited the positive outcome of an incident that could have been tragic to "the immense operational training" she received from the IDF.

"They taught us how to operate and behave during incidents such as this, although it is certainly different during the actual event. You try to do your best. I believe every one of us could do this just as well," she said.

On March 21, another incident did not end as peacefully. Two Palestinian young men carrying weapons and firebombs were shot by IDF troops near Ramallah. Mohammed al-Barghouti, 17, was killed, and his companion, Hatem Barghouti, 20, was wounded.

One day later, in a joint IDF-GSS operation, three armed Fatah terrorists, each of whom has been wanted by Israel, were arrested on their way from Hebron to the village of Yatta.

One of them, Issa Halil Muhamad Nuagea, 31, had been wanted by Israel since September 2001. As the head of the Tanzim terror organization in Yatta, he was involved not only in terror activities, but also in weapons trafficking.

Ibrahim Hasan Abdullah Shuahin, 37, had been wanted by Israel since May 2006.

Naaman Muhamad Ahmed Abu Rabia, 31, has also been highly involved in Tanzim terror activities, including the trafficking of weapons and violence against Palestinians suspected of cooperating with Israel. He had been wanted by Israel since January 2002.

The three terrorists had been operating as an armed Tanzim cell since 2002, carrying out attacks against Israeli citizens and security forces. When they were arrested, a submachine gun and two handguns were uncovered in their vehicle.