The good news for residents of Judea and Samaria is that the number of terrorist attacks dropped by 20 percent in July compared with June. The bad news is that there still were 50 attacks, or approximately 12 a week.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) released the statistics, which are of little solace to victims, also showed a similar pattern in Jerusalem, where residents suffered 26 attacks in July, down from 39 in June.
Another disturbing factor if that the most of the attacks involved firebombs (Molotov cocktails), and not rocks, which also can be deadly but less so than a burning bottle that smashes through a car window.
The ISA also fudged the statistics a bit by counting a multiple-rock or firebomb attack as a single incident. For example, although there were 50 “attacks” in Judea and Samaria in June, security officials reported that there were 60 firebombs thrown.
The report does not include dozens of hundreds of rock-throwing attacks that are not reported by drivers , who are more concerned with stepping on the gas and escaping with their lives than with telephoning officials to tell them they almost got killed.
It also does not take into account dozens of attacks that were thwarted, such as the arrest of a knife-wielding Arab in Hevron and of another terrorist carrying material for a bomb in his car. Another area not covered in the statistics is vandalism. Arabs in Hevron tore off mezuzahs four times the past month at the Patriarchs Cave in Hevron.
There also were four attacks with small arms in Jerusalem as well as one stabbing, which caused serious wounds to a man walking in the Old City after visiting the Western Wall.
Terrorists from Gaza also were busy, shooting five rockets, while their colleagues in Sinai carried out one attack with two missile launches at Eilat.