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Now unleashed, the wave of "lone-wolf" stabbing attacks by young Palestinians against Israelis shows no signs of ending.
Devoid of any hope of a political solution and angry at both the Palestinian leadership and Israel, theattackers have terrified Israelis and prompted what human rights groups have described as a disturbing trend towards the use of "excessive force" from the Israeli security forces.
Another young man allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli police officer in Jerusalem's contested Old City on Monday and like several others before him, he was shot to death at the scene.
"There is a worrying pattern of use of force, and the mounting casualties appear to reflect it," Sari Bashi, the Israel-Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, says.
Indeed, Israeli forces shot and wounded a research assistant working for Human Rights Watch as she was observing a peaceful demonstration outside Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on October 6.
"The pattern that emerges from the videos, eye-witness accounts and the sheer number of casualties is troubling, especially when juxtaposed with problematic statements by Israel's leaders," Ms Bashi told Fairfax Media.
International law – both international human rights law and the special rules that apply to Israel's occupation – requires Israeli security forces to protect civilians, even if they are demonstrating or suspected of violence, she said.
"Firearms should be a last resort. Intentional use of lethal force should only be used when strictly necessary to protect life – and even then, warning should be given if possible."
Four Israelis have died and 25 Palestinians – some of them alleged attackers – have been killed in the 12 days of bloodshed that have swept Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
The young Palestinians who are protesting – through violent and non-violent means – represent just one of several generations who have lived under decades of Israeli military occupation, their lives dominated by concrete walls, checkpoints, soldiers, poverty and violence.
"We are in the midst of a wave of terrorism originating from systematic and mendacious incitement regarding the Temple Mount – incitement by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Movement in Israel," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
He denied the latest wave of violence was born out of frustration over the absence of a lasting peace deal between Israel and Palestine.
"Terrorism does not come from frustration over the lack of a diplomatic solution, but from a desire to destroy us," Mr Netanyahu told the Knesset on Monday.
At his request, the cabinet unanimously approved on Sunday a bill that imposes mandatory minimum prison sentences for individuals caught throwing rocks, firebombs and firecrackers.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid took a similar line after visiting security services in Jerusalem's Old City.
"The terrorist who tried to stab security forces was shot and killed; that is the right response. That should be the operating model; whoever comes at us with a knife needs to know that they will be shot."
But some Israeli commentators have expressed dismay at the actions of the security forces and the politicians cheering them on.
"A spree of extrajudicial killings is sweeping over the land," columnist Gideon Levy wrote in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper. "It's sickening, barbaric and lawless – and it is buoyed by the cheers of the masses, media incitement and the authorities' encouragement.
"This society has had savage periods before, but not like this one, in which every stabber or anyone who threatens with a knife, screwdriver or vegetable peeler is executed, even after he has thrown down his weapon, while the killer becomes a hero of the nation."
Those who called for the death penalty for terrorists have won, Levy wrote, as there is now "a death penalty without trial".
Meanwhile, in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper Yehuda Shohat wrote: "Quietly and, as usual, without any real discussions and out of the instincts of a hot-blooded mind, Israel began applying the death sentence in recent weeks.
"It's not just the statements made by politicians who only know how to talk, or by senior police officers who have declared that every stabbing attempt must end with the terrorist's death. It's mostly the acts."
Time and again, he wrote, terrorists who tried to stab Israelis were executed when they could have been subdued or incapacitated.
Human Rights Watch criticised Mr Netanyahu's move to equate stone-throwing children with terrorists and of the decision of leaders to "laud policemen and soldiers who kill suspected assailants".
Meanwhile, the Israeli army's refusal to publish its rules of engagement is again in the spotlight.
"That lack of transparency is worrying, given the conduct of soldiers as observed by demonstrators and sometimes captured on video," Ms Bashi says.
In an email exchange with the IDF, Major Arye Shalicar told Fairfax Media "as a policy we do not elaborate on the IDF's rules of engagement".
He said forces will use tear gas and rubber bullets and "in the event that soldiers face a clear and present danger to their lives, forces may open live fire using .22-calibre bullets against the main instigators and those who pose a threat to security".
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the high number of casualties, in particular those resulting from the use of live ammunition by Israeli forces, raising serious concerns about the excessive use of force that may be contrary to international law.
Palestinian human rights groups have also expressed concern at Israel's actions, as video after video emerges of alleged offenders being shot dead rather than apprehended.
"Al-Haq has documented countless cases of excessive use of force where the IOF have showed complete disregard for Palestinians' lives and safety," the legal NGO al-Haq stated.
The upsurge in violence comes at the same time as an increase in the "frequency and severity of attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians," al-Haq says, including shooting and beating of Palestinian civilians, vandalising homes and burning olive orchards and other crops.
The jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, writing in The Guardian, said "the real problem is that Israel has chosen occupation over peace, and used negotiations as a smokescreen to advance its colonial project".
"Maybe it is useful to remind the world that our dispossession, forced exile and transfer, and oppression have now lasted for nearly 70 years. We are the only item to have stood on the UN's agenda since its inception."
Serving multiple life sentences for his role in terrorist attacks against Israelis, Mr Barghouti wrote of the protesters: "This new Palestinian generation has not awaited reconciliation talks to embody a national unity [that] political parties have failed to achieve."
By Monday's end there had been further stabbing attacks against Israelis: an 18-year-old woman stabbed a border policeman in Jerusalem's Ammunition Hill, wounding him lightly – she was shot by police – while a 13-year-old boy was critically wounded and a 25-year-old seriously injured following what was described as a stabbing rampage in the settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev in East Jerusalem.
