Palestinian terrorists who infiltrated from Gaza on Saturday killed almost as many Israelis in one day as they managed to kill in five years of the second intifada.
The second intifada was launched in 2000 after Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat walked away from peace talks with Israel at Camp David. It lasted for roughly five years, until Israel built a security barrier, in and along the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).
Unlike the first intifada, which was characterized by riots against Israeli forces, the second intifada largely involved terror attacks against Israeli civilians, especially suicide bombings — aboard buses, in restaurants, on the streets, and even on a college campus.
There were, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, 1,118 Israelis killed in the second intifada, 787 of whom were civilians. In the October 7, 2023, terror attack, there have been, thus far, over 800 deaths, most of them civilians — with the death toll still rising.
The attack, which took place on the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, the last festival of the High Holy Day cycle, is the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history, and the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, nearing 900 deaths and well over 2,000 wounded.
more people died in israel in a single day than any other day since israel became a state
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) October 9, 2023
– israeli foreign ministry pic.twitter.com/gNbBJjJ1qv
The attack was applauded — and likely planned by — Iran, which has vowed to end Israel’s existence.
Israel has mobilized 300,000 reservists to join nearly 200,000 active-duty troops in responding to the crisis on its borders.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
