Middle East - one year after Gaza offensive

Attacks on Israel drop in 2009

Article published on the 2009-12-31 Latest update 2009-12-31 15:08 TU

A right-wing activist wrapped in an Israeli flag stands in front of left-wing activists as they protest in the southern city of Beersheba against Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip.
(Photo: Reuters)

The number of attacks on Israelis has dropped in 2009, according to the annual Victims on terrorism report by the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet. In 2009, 15 Israelis were killed compared to 36 the previous year.

The numbers of attacks were the lowest since the start of the intifada of 2000, according to the report. No suicide bombings are said to have occurred in 2009. 

Nine of the victims were killed during the military offensive on the Gaza Strip or in friendly fire incidents.

The Gaza offensive claimed the lives of about 1,400 Palestinians.

Throughout 2009, Shin Bet says, 566 rockets were been fired from Gaza, with only 160 of them being fired after the end of the Israeli offensive.

The report also says 636 Palestinian attacks originated from the West Bank compared to 983 the previous year.

The Shin Bet report also claims authorities foiled dozens of attempts to enter Israel through Egypt so as to plant bombs. It notes an increasing involvement of operatives who identify with groups linked to Al-Qaeda.

Although these figures are positive, both sides will have to work hard to shift the current political deadlock,  says correspondent in Jerusalem Elias Zenanieri.

“The name of the game here is what is going to happen tomorrow?" he says. "After a quiet day will tomorrow be tense, volatile or peaceful?

"This has got a lot to do with what the Israeli government and Palestinian authorities are going to do. That is one of the reasons why there is a tremendous effort now to resume negociations in order to move out of the current impasse.”

Meanwhile in Cairo, police are reported to have kicked and punched international activists demonstrating in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Organisers of the Gaza Freedom March, which took place yesterday on both sides of the Gaza border, say some of their members are  currently being forcibly detained in hotels and pens around Cairo.

Two-hundred international activists had gathered in central Cairo as part of week-long demonstrations to protest at Egypt's refusal to let the demonstrators enter Gaza.

The Strip has been sealed off from all but vital humanitarian aid since the Islamist group Hamas took control there in June 2007.