Number of Terror Attacks in Israel Drops Significantly
Image by Getty Images
The number of terrorist attacks recorded in Israel last month decreased by 32 percent over December, bringing the total to a level that was last observed prior to September’s escalation in violence.
The Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, documented 169 terrorist attacks by Palestinians on Israelis in January, compared to 246 such incidents the previous month, Shin Bet wrote in its monthly report, which it published earlier this week.
It is the first time since July that the number of attacks dropped below the 171 mark observed in August, according to Shin Bet’s figures. In September, October and November, Shin Bet recorded 223, 620 and 326 attacks respectively.
In October, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the escalation “a terror wave.” It was widely referred to in Israel and Palestinian media as “the third intifada.”
While the overall number of attacks diminished, they proved deadlier last month than in August and July, when no Israelis died as a result of terrorist attacks and fewer than 10 were wounded. Five Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks last month, compared to only three in December and one person in September. In November and December, 11 and 10 Israelis died in such attacks, respectively.
Dozens of Palestinians were also killed during the escalation, many of them by security forced or armed civilians while they were carrying out attacks.
Of the 169 incidents recorded in January, 136 involved the hurling of firebombs at soldiers or civilians.
Separately, Netanyahu on Thursday announced he had decided to promote Shin Bet Deputy Director Nadav Argaman, 55, to head the organization. Argaman, who entered the Shin Bet in 1983, had served as the domestic security organization’s liaison to the United States in the years 2007-2011.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
