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| Palestinian throwing rock |
The number of terror attacks against Israelis fell slightly in the month of June, according to a report by the Tazpit News Agency.
June 2013 saw a decline in the number of terror attacks carried out against Israelis, totaling at 103 attacks, as opposed to 124 attacks in May, this according to a report released by Israel's General Security Service, or GSS.
The primary decline was noted in the number of attacks in Judea and Samaria: 60, as opposed to 83 in May. However, there was a slight increase in the number of attacks originating from the Gaza Strip: 4 rocket attacks, as opposed to 3 in May, and in Jerusalem: 39 as opposed to 38 in May.
In Jerusalem and the Judea and Samaria area most of the attacks executed in June, 88 out of 99, were in the form of firebombs. Other attacks were executed in the form of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), 7 attacks in total, 5 of them in Jerusalem, and 4 small arms shootings.
The GSS has recorded a total of 574 attacks executed by Palestinian terrorists against Israeli targets since the beginning of 2013.
This decrease in attacks may be a result of the IDF stepping up its activities against Palestinian terrorism. Commander of the Gush Etzion Division, Colonel Yaniv Alaluf, announced a week ago his soldiers have made some 300 arrests in the vicinity under his command, bringing down the number of attacks by 80%, from 50 incidents a week to ten a week.
He indicated that the GSS and Special Forces are involved in these preventive operations. "We are making organized preparations for an event of a crisis. The units are well versed in ongoing security activities, and we are hastening our readiness for extreme scenarios. We are not wasting time in planning, and today the forces' readiness is on a very high level", Col. Alaluf concluded.
However the numbers in the GSS report do not include stone-throwing attacks. Tazpit News Agency records dozens of stone attacks against Israelis daily. Palestinian rock-throwing has become a part of routine life for Jewish residents living in Judea and Samaria. Many of the 350,000 residents living in Judea and Samaria have experienced some kind of rock attack on their vehicle. For residents impacted by such rock attacks, the rock is simply as lethal as any other weapon.