Despite online red flags, terrorists slip under radar
Before both the terror attack in Halamish and in the Temple Mount, the terrorists posted their their intentions on Facebook; yet, despite Israeli security forces monitoring social networks for these warning signs, they were unable to prevent the two deadly attacks.
Omar al-Abed, who murdered Yosef Salomon, 70, and his two children Haya, 46, and Elad, 35, in Halamish, posted his "will" on Facebook about an hour and 40 minutes before the attack.
Israeli security forces are now investigating why the post was not detected on time. It appears the large volume of similar posts at the time and the way in which so much information is being monitored did not allow for the necessary red flags to be raised over the post and for the terrorist to be stopped before he could carry out the attack.
A senior IDF official said identifying such threats "is a significant challenge when the terrorist is not a member of any (terror) organization." He added security services have identified unrest from the morning hours, saying the "attack in Halamish is only one of the attacks carried out over the Temple Mount crisis."
Defense officials told Ynet the volume and reach of incitement on social media have increased exponentially over the past week, similar to the incitement that sparked the wave of terror attacks that began in October 2015. In the last 24 hours alone, some 600,000 posts were made on social media in the Arab world inciting to violence in the wake of the events on the Temple Mount.
The defense officials explained that alongside the spike in incitement on social media, there has also been an increase in online monitoring activity in search for lone wolf terrorists. However, the number of potential attackers who weren't detected on time rose as well.
The Shin Bet arrested several potential attackers in recent days over posts they've made on social media, and Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman reported proudly last month that since the beginning of 2016, some 2,000 would-be attackers were identified and stopped by the agency. "Innovative technological advances contributed greatly to reducing the threats of organized terrorism and isolated attacks," Argaman said.
But as it turns out, even cyber capabilities are limited when it comes to lone wolf terrorism.
The IDF has established an operative research team within its Judea and Samaria Division to monitor incitement over social networks and inside Palestinian communities.
According to the head of the team Lt. S., they "construct profiles of participants in demonstrations and monitor them through social networks, keeping track of them and making arrests (when necessary). We record everything that might indicate a desire or an early intention to commit a criminal act and process it into usable intelligence on them."