{{Short description|Terrorist use of knife attacks as a tactic}} {{Multiple issues| {{Recentism|date=August 2024}} {{Update|date=August 2024}} }} {{Terrorism|methods}} Stabbing attacks, which have been used as a tactic for thousands of years, became an increasingly common form of terrorism targeting random civilians in the 21st century, in particular during the 2010s and 2020s.<ref name="RiseOMuwahhid">{{cite news|last1=Bergema|first1=Reinier|last2=Kearney|first2=Olivia|date=12 May 2020|title=Rise O Muwahhid, Wherever You May Be: An Analysis of the Democratization of the Terrorist Threat in the West|url=https://icct.nl/publication/rise-o-muwahhid-wherever-you-may-be-an-analysis-of-the-democratization-of-the-terrorist-threat-in-the-wes/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200517204345/https://icct.nl/publication/rise-o-muwahhid-wherever-you-may-be-an-analysis-of-the-democratization-of-the-terrorist-threat-in-the-wes/|archive-date=17 May 2020|work=International Centre for Counter-Terrorism}}</ref>
==History==
=== 19th century === A foundational stabbing in the history of terrorism was the 13 November 1893 stabbing by anarchist Léon Léauthier during the Ère des attentats.{{Sfn|Ferragu|2019|p=21-31}} This attack is considered a foundational event of modern terrorism because Léauthier targeted a complete stranger; he was thus acting within the emerging logic of indiscriminate and mass terrorism.{{Sfn|Ferragu|2019|p=21-31}}
=== 20th and 21st century === According to security analyst Peter Bergen in 2017, stabbing attacks have gained popularity because such attacks are inexpensive and easy to carry out, but very difficult for security services to prevent.<ref name="Bergen">{{cite news |last1=Bergen|first1=Peter|date=22 March 2017|title=London shows the challenge of preventing low-tech terror|url=http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/opinions/low-tech-terror-hard-to-defend-against-bergen/|access-date=4 April 2017|publisher=CNN}}</ref> According to Juan Romero, this resurgence emerged first with the GIA in the 1990s and later among Palestinian terrorists and Islamic State militants in the 21st century.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Romero|first=Juan|title=Terrorism: the Power and Weakness of Fear|date=2022|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-032-19806-4|series=Routledge Studies in Modern History|location=Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY|pages=246|chapter=A comparative evolution of terrorism}}</ref>
A wave of lone wolf terrorist stabbing attacks in which Palestinian Arabs attacked Israeli civilians began on 3 October 2015 with the first of the Lions' Gate stabbings.<ref name="WedemanViolence">{{cite news|last1=Wedeman|first1=Ben|title=Israeli-Palestinian violence: What you need to know|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/14/middleeast/israel-palestinians-violence-explainer/|access-date=4 April 2017|publisher=CNN|date=15 October 2015}}</ref> The ensuing 2015–2016 wave of violence in Israeli-Palestinian conflict is thought{{by whom |date=December 2025}} to have been driven not by formal organizations but, rather by social media postings inspiring young Palestinians to undertake attacks with knives and with vehicles.<ref name="NewKindofTerrorism">{{cite news|last1=Booth|first1=William|title=Israelis are calling attacks a 'new kind of Palestinian terrorism'|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israelis-are-calling-attacks-a-new-kind-of-palestinian-terror/2015/12/24/e162e088-0953-4de5-992e-adb2126f1dcc_story.html|access-date=4 April 2017|newspaper=Washington Post|date=25 December 2015}}</ref><ref name="WedemanViolence" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.682064?v=58C42F8D18D152AEC95BECE2B51B1E03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160729141304/http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.682064?v=58C42F8D18D152AEC95BECE2B51B1E03|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 29, 2016|title=U.S. House Panel Unanimously Votes to Condemn Palestinian Incitement|work=Haaretz.com|date=2015-10-24}}</ref><ref name="HatovelyHateThatKills">{{cite news|last1=Hatovely|first1=Tzipi|title=Palestinian Incitement: Hate-Speech That Kills|url=http://www.newsweek.com/palestinian-incitement-hate-speech-kills-421424|access-date=4 April 2017|publisher=Newsweek|date=31 January 2016}}</ref> In response, by mid-2017, Israeli police had revamped their anti-terrorism tactics, increased their monitoring of social media, improved the intercommunication of mobile devices, and gave security agencies the ability to instantly trace phone calls made from such devices.<ref name="FoxStreetTerror">{{cite news|last1=Fox|first1=Robert|title=Israel changes tactics to tackle street terror|publisher=London Evening Standard|date=27 June 2017}}</ref>
The series of Palestinian stabbing attacks were followed by the spread of such attacks during a wave of Islamic terrorism in Europe which had seen "at least" 10 stabbing attacks allegedly motivated by Islamic extremism in Europe by the spring of 2017, with a particular concentration of such attacks in France.<ref name="JenkinsTimeline">{{cite news|last1=Jenkins|first1=Nash|title=A Timeline of Recent Terrorist Attacks in Europe|url=https://time.com/4607481/europe-terrorism-timeline-berlin-paris-nice-brussels/|access-date=4 April 2017|magazine=Time|date=19 December 2016}}</ref><ref name="RubinOfficersStabbed">{{cite news|last1=Rubin|first1=Alissa|title=2 Brussels Police Officers Are Stabbed in 'Potential Terrorist Attack'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/world/europe/police-brussels-knife-terrorism.html|access-date=4 April 2017|work=The New York Times|date=5 October 2016}}</ref>
==== Online recruitment efforts by Islamist groups in the 2010s ==== In May 2016, Al-Qaeda's ''Inspire'' published an article entitled "O Knife Revolution, Head Toward America".<ref name="SmallScaleAttacks">{{cite news|title=Latest Issue of Inspire Magazine Encourages Small Scale Attacks|url=https://www.adl.org/blog/latest-issue-of-inspire-magazine-encourages-small-scale-attacks|access-date=4 April 2017|publisher=ADL|date=19 May 2016}}</ref> The magazine urged Muslims to kill "the intelligentsia, economic and influential personalities of America", by low-tech methods including stabbing attacks, as such assaults are "easy options that do not require huge efforts or man power, but the result is parallel to the big operations or even more".<ref name="SmallScaleAttacks" /><ref name="JohnsonNightmareScenario">{{cite news|last1=Johnson|first1=Bridget|title=ISIS Call for Stabbing Sprees a Nightmare Scenario for Stopping Terror Plots|url=http://observer.com/2016/10/isis-call-for-stabbing-sprees-a-nightmare-scenario-for-stopping-terror-plots/|access-date=4 April 2017|publisher=New York Observer|date=6 October 2016}}</ref>
In October 2016, ''Rumiyah'', the online propaganda and recruitment magazine published by the Islamic State (IS) told followers that holy warriors down through Muslim history have "struck the necks of the kuffar" in the name of Allah, with "swords, severing limbs and piercing the fleshy meat of those who opposed Islam". The magazine advised its readers that knives are easy to obtain, easy to hide, and deadly, and that they make good weapons in places where Muslims might be regarded with suspicion.<ref name="WrightState">{{cite magazine|last1=Wright|first1=Robin|title=The Hand of ISIS at Ohio State|url=http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-hand-of-isis-at-ohio-state|access-date=4 April 2017|magazine=The New Yorker|date=26 November 2016}}</ref><ref name="JohnsonNightmareScenario" />
=== Attacks in the 2020s === * 2021 Auckland supermarket stabbing * 2024 Wakeley church stabbing
==See also== *Mass stabbing *Sicarii – ancient Jewish extremists who used this terrorist tactic *List of knife attacks by Islamic extremists
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
== Bibliography ==
* {{Citation |last=Ferragu |first=Gilles |title=L'écho des bombes : l'invention du terrorisme « à l'aveugle » (1893-1895) |date=2019 |journal=Ethnologie française |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=21–31 |trans-title=The echo of bombs: The invention of indiscriminate terrorism (1893–1895) |url=https://shs.cairn.info/revue-ethnologie-francaise-2019-1-page-21?lang=fr |doi=10.3917/ethn.191.0021 |url-access=subscription}} {{Terrorism topics}}
Category:Terrorism tactics Terrorist tactic