Nobody in Israel’s defense establishment had deluded themselves into thinking the weeklong lull indicated that the wave of attacks has ebbed. Speaking cautiously, they said that the drop in the intensity of the attacks might suggest a drop in motivation on the ground. That the armed Palestinian organizations have not yet joined the cycle of violence and that the attacking arena for now remains the sole domain of lone-wolf assailants were considered a positive sign. That was all true until Nov. 19.

Within a two-hour span, that day became the deadliest recorded since the outbreak of the recent wave of violence. Five people were murdered in attacks perpetrated in Tel Aviv and near the Etzion settlement bloc.

At noon, a Palestinian man from the village of Dura near Hebron stabbed two people — Aharon Yesayev, 32, and Reuven Aviram, 51 — to death while they were praying in a building in south Tel Aviv.

Two hours later, another Palestinian from Hebron went on a shooting rampage at the Gush Etzion junction, murdering three people — Israeli Yaakov Don, 51; American tourist Ezra Schwartz, 18; and Palestinian passerby Shadi Arafa, 24.