NEW ASKAR REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank >> Ashrakat Qattanani, 16, gave clear warning that she was up to something days before she swapped her schoolbooks for a knife and headed to a nearby Israeli military checkpoint. If I am killed, Ashrakat told her father, “Don’t cry for me, cry for Palestine.”

Hadeel Awwad, 14, betrayed no such thoughts. Her brother had been shot dead by Israeli forces two years before, but that had inspired her to want to become a doctor, so she could save lives. But close to the second anniversary of her brother’s death, Hadeel picked up a pair of scissors and with her cousin Nourhan, 16, walked calmly to a Jerusalem market.

The three teenagers are among the 15 women who have tried, or are accused of trying, to stab Israeli soldiers or civilians in the West Bank since an uprising began in October. Where previous outbursts of Palestinian violence predominantly involved men, women have accounted for about 20 percent of all Palestinian attackers in the last two months. For perhaps the first time in this patriarchal society they are acting on their own, without consulting any male authorities.

On Tuesday, a 19-year-old university student, Maram Hasouna, was shot dead after she lunged at soldiers with a knife at a military checkpoint in the northern West Bank, the Israeli military said. Another young woman was taken in for questioning after she was found near Efrat, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, with a knife in her bag, Israeli news media reported.

Many of the attackers were troubled teens like Ashrakat, who fought often with her father and drifted between her divorced parents’ homes, briefly becoming engaged at 14. But not all; one woman was planning her wedding. Nine of the women were shot dead, six were arrested. Several Israelis were wounded, one moderately, but none were killed by the women, the Israeli police and news media have reported.

From the beginning, young women have assumed an unfamiliar role in this uprising and the tensions leading up to it, confounding families and a society unaccustomed to women wanting to be killers and unfurling once-rare scenes across the West Bank.

The faces of teenage girls stare out from martyrdom posters in their hometowns of Hebron, Qalqilya and the tight alleyways of the Kalandia and New Askar refugee camps.

The sight of the young women, some smiling, some in makeup, all in head scarves, is even more striking in that most come from families so conservative they would disapprove of them using photographs of themselves for their Facebook profiles. Families that once tightly supervised their daughters’ whereabouts now learn about the girls’ actions through television reports.

The role of women in the attacks has also added momentum to the violence, as men have sought to avenge their deaths.

Raed Jaradat, 26, stabbed a soldier on Oct. 26 after a 17-year-old girl was shot dead by security officers who said she had brandished a knife. The family of the girl, Dania al-Husseini, later announced her post-death betrothal to Jaradat, calling it a “martyrs’ wedding.”

“This is how the men console themselves,” said Dania’s mother, Amal, 43, who said her husband was struggling to cope with the death of his daughter, described as a dreamy girl who liked drawing mermaids. “They are drowning in grief.”

The uprising was triggered by fears over the status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, but at its core is anger over decades of Israeli military occupation, fading hopes of statehood and a rebellion against Palestinian leaders. Unlike the second Palestinian intifada, which was propelled by organized groups, this surge in violence is leaderless, a rash of random stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks.

More than 20 Israelis and one American Jew have been killed in the uprising. Over 100 Palestinians have died in the same period, many of them in the process of an attack. Others were shot dead in violent demonstrations. Palestinians and rights groups have accused Israeli forces of using excessive, lethal force in some instances.

The participation of women in this uprising is to some extent a reflection of a changing gender dynamic in Palestinian society, but is also a result of the individualized, improvisational nature of the violence, where young people need only grab a knife from the kitchen to join the fight.

Women were among the leaders of the first four-year Palestinian uprising that began in 1987, organizing marches, food cooperatives and first aid. During the second, more violent intifada from 2000-05, militant leaders pointedly discouraged women from participating. Still, eight women carried out suicide bombings.

Analysts say the young women are exposed to the same incendiary propaganda, videos and commentary as the young men who commit violent acts. Many of them — like Ashrakat, who scrawled revolutionary poetry over her bed and wanted her father to cry for her homeland — appear to be consumed with the ideal of dying for the cause of their generation, the contested Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

“It’s very romantic,” said Eileen Kuttab, director of women’s studies at the Palestinian Birzeit University. The martyr, she said, “will never be forgotten.”

Some of the female attackers appeared to be troubled, but that is just one factor, said Kuttab, who noted that many other Palestinian women lead troubled lives without stabbing someone.

The participation of such young women has prompted accusations of manipulation, particularly through nonstop, blaring broadcasts by the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad that urge people to take action.

“They inflame the emotions of children, they play on their most sensitive spots, with footage of clashes and death,” said Manal Awwad, 42, the aunt of Hadeel, the 14-year-old attacker.

In the weeks of brewing tensions leading to the uprising that began in October, it was mainly women who harassed Jewish visitors to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site. It is also known as the Temple Mount, and is the holiest site in Judaism.

The tone was set when Hadeel Hashlamoun, 18, pulled out a knife at an Israeli military checkpoint on Sept. 22. She was shot repeatedly and died soon afterward.

Since that attack, dozens of parents have reeled in surprise after finding that their daughters sought to become killers, including Taha Qattanani, 42, the father of Ashrakat.

The night before her attack attempt, she told her little sister that she was going to die. “We thought it was just talk,” Qattanani said. “She was a rebellious soul.”

On Sunday, Nov. 22, Ashrakat charged at a young Israeli woman waiting at a bus stop near a military checkpoint. A settler who was driving by ran his car into the teenager, and she was then shot repeatedly, local news media reported. A photograph of the scene showed a girl in a head scarf and yellow polka-dot shirt lying on the ground.

The next day, Hadeel Awwad ate cornflakes for breakfast, and skipped school with her cousin Nourhan. They headed for a busy street in Jerusalem, where Hadeel lightly stabbed a Palestinian man, who she presumably thought was an Israeli. She then waved her scissors at a security guard, according to a video of the episode posted on social media.

A man hit Nourhan with a chair, knocking her to the ground. The security guard shot Hadeel repeatedly, and shot Nourhan twice. B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group, described the deaths of Hadeel Awwad and Ashrakat as “public, summary street executions.” Nourhan was wounded and is recovering in a hospital.

Other women, too, have baffled their families.

Rasha Oweiss, 23, a university student, had been planning to get married soon, her family said. The night before she tried to commit an attack, she was teasing her sisters about how pretty she was compared with them.

On Nov. 9, she walked toward an Israel military checkpoint, with a knife raised, and was shot dead. “Forgive me,” read a letter that was found in Oweiss’ bag. “I cannot bear what I am seeing anymore. There’s no other way except this path.”

Oweiss’ red engagement dress still hangs in her closet. Her sister clutched it for reassurance. Her cousin Dalia burst into tears. “I have no explanation for this.”

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