Is the third intifada already here?

With two terror attacks in past two weeks and anger over the legalisation of more settlements, Israeli fears of a new intifada may be too late.

Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns painted a bleak picture of the situation earlier this week, saying he is “quite concerned about the prospects for even greater fragility and even greater violence between Israelis and Palestinians.”

The concern is well founded.

Palestinians have mounted two terror attacks on Israeli civilians in the past two weeks. Two people, including a 6-year-old child, were killed in a car ramming attack in East Jerusalem last week and seven people died after a shooting outside a synagogue in Jerusalem the previous weeks.

The death of a 21-year-old in an Israeli military raid this week brings to 48 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces this year.

The third intifada, according to a growing number of Palestinians, started about a year ago in the northern West Bank, when several armed groups sprang up, and they continue to operate against Israeli soldiers and civilians. It’s an angry conglomeration of individuals and both organised and random armed groups with no unified leadership.

The groups are mostly affiliated with Islamic Jihad and the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Recently, however, the armed wing of Hamas also formed its own terrorist cells in the areas of Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron to compete for authority with Jihad and Fatah gunmen.

Palestinians who support the armed groups claim that this is “the only language that Israel understands.” In their view, the First Intifada forced Israel to sign a deal with the Palestinians and brought the PLO leadership to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Second Intifada, they claim, was the main reason Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip. Now, they’re hoping that the current intifada will force Israel to make more concessions.