The IDF on Sunday issued a new report featuring updated data on terror attacks in 2017.
Twenty Israelis were killed and 169 were wounded in 99 terrorist attacks originating in Judea and Samaria in 2017, up from 17 killed and 263 injured in 269 attacks last year.
It was nevertheless a large decrease from the 93 killed and 882 wounded in the 100 terrorist attacks originating in Judea-Samaria in 2014. 28 Israelis were killed and another 360 wounded in 226 attacks in 2015.
The Shin Bet intelligence agency, IDF and police, have increased their efforts to uncover unofficial workshops producing illegal weapons, carrying out near-nightly raids in Judea and Samaria, shutting down weapons factories and confiscating arms, greatly reducing the number of illegal explosive devices and other weapons that could end up in the hands of Muslims terrorists.
According to the IDF, 42 illegal weapons workshops were closed and 455 illegal weapons were seized in Judea and Samaria in 2017, a slight increase from the 40 gun-making workshops closed in 2016. The number of weapons seized remained the same at 445, still a significant increase from the 170 illegal weapons seized in 2015.
While the Muslim terrorism has since decreased since its peak in the winter of 2016 when there were almost daily terror attacks, the “lone wolf” has emerged as the face of terrorism. Late last month, Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman said that the agency prevented some 1,100 potential lone wolf attacks in 2017, up from the 400 thwarted in 2016.
While lone wolf attacks are hard to prevent, security forces, have increased their efforts to get to the root of the problem in several ways.
Thousands of terror attacks have been thwarted due to intelligence gathering, including by an increased monitoring of social media activity, and arresting Muslim terrorists who express a desire to set out on terror attacks or attempt to inspire others to do so.
The IDF has arrested 3,617 Muslim terrorists over the past year, an increase from the 3,143 arrested in 2016.
On the Gaza front, the IDF data indicate an increase in the number of rockets fired by terrorists towards Israel: 35 rockets were fired in 2017, compared to only 15 rockets fired in 2016.
In retaliation for these attacks, the IDF attacked 59 targets in Gaza. Among the targets attacked were launchers, outposts and training camps, weapons production sites, observation posts and more.
For more than four years, the IDF has been assisting the residents of the Syrian Golan Heights in surviving the difficult civil war that is taking place in their country.
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