Two Israeli Arab girls (13) stab security guard at bus station

Two Israeli Arab girls, both aged 13, stabbed and wounded a security guard at a bus station in central Israel on Thursday in the latest attack in a spate of violence that has lasted almost five months, leaving the Israeli leadership at a loss over how to respond.

The extremely young age of the girls, combined with the fact that they were both Israeli citizens living in a relatively peaceful, mixed Jewish-Arab city in central Israel, underscored the spontaneous and random nature of the attacks that have left more than 160 Palestinians and 29 Israelis dead since the start of October.

The two girls pulled out knives from their schoolbags as they approached the security guard at the entrance to the Ramle bus station and stabbed him a number of times, inflicting light wounds, police said, before they were subdued by other guards and passers-by.

Police described the attack as a “nationalist” attack.

The attack came a few hours after the Israeli security cabinet met in emergency session to discuss what can be done to quell the violence after a border police woman was shot and killed outside Jerusalem’s old city on Wednesday.

The three Palestinians reported to have carried out the attack, who were shot and killed, had travelled from the village of Qabatiya in the northern West Bank armed with guns, knives and home-made bombs.

The army imposed a closure on Qabatiya as troops mapped out for demolition the family homes of the three perpetrators. The Israeli leadership was also considering restricting movement between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank and setting up additional roadblocks.

However, because the attacks have been largely carried out by young individuals, influenced by social media but without links to militant groups, the army has been reluctant to carry out measures that will impact the general Palestinian population.

Ben Caspit, a leading commentator for the Ma'ariv newspaper, wrote that the government of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu had no answers.

“The truth is harsh, and must be admitted: Israel is in a dangerous and complex trap. There is no bank of targets, no infrastructure, no leadership and no hierarchy behind this wave of terrorism. This is a popular, spontaneous, viral wave of terrorism based on hatred, on fanning emotions and on despair.”

A Jerusalem court on Thursday sentenced two Israeli minors to lengthy prison sentences for the murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammad Abu Khdair in 2014. One was given a life sentence; the other 21 years in jail.

Abu Khdair (16) was forced into a car, then beaten and burned alive, in a revenge attack after three Israeli teenagers were seized and killed in the West Bank.