Source: Ha'aretz
Jan 08, 2007
International - and even Israeli - observers may be led to think that the level of terrorism against Israel dropped in 2006 because the number of Israeli casualties was lower than in previous years.
In fact, a senior officer in the Israel Defense Forces Central Command told reporters Sunday, there has been a "significant escalation on the ground in terms of threat levels and the number of attempts to dispatch suicide [sic] bombers."
The officer said 2006 saw 11 Israeli citizens killed in two successful "suicide" bombings inside Israel's 1949 borders. This was the lowest number of Israelis murderd in this way since 2001.
Nonetheless, Israeli jails are today holding 187 Arabs who were involved in plans to carry out such bombing attacks last year.
In total, 559 terrorist shooting attacks took place in 2006, most of them targeting IDF troops, and most taking place inside PA-controlled towns.