Major spike in Judea and Samaria shooting attacks, IDF stats reveal

(JNS) — As 2022 draws to a close, the Israel Defense Forces has summarized its operational activities for the past year, which included dozens of reported strikes on Iranian targets in Syria and dozens of special operations.

Dozens of enemy cyber attacks were thwarted, the IDF’s figures reveal.

The Lebanese arena remained quiet this year, despite Hezbollah’s attempt to send unarmed drones towards Israeli offshore gas rigs in July, which were shot down by the Israel Navy and Air Force.

Judea and Samaria saw one of its most violent years in the last fifteen, with two hundred eighty-five terrorist shooting attacks in 2022, compared to sixty-one in 2021. There was, however, a decrease in stabbing incidents, with fourteen compared to eighteen last year, according to the IDF report.

The defense establishment is deeply disturbed by the Palestinian Authority’s lack of sovereignty in northern areas such as Jenin and Nablus, which became centers of terrorism this year, the document continued.

Thirty-one Israelis—twenty-four of them civilians—were murdered by terrorists this year, compared to four in 2021.

The IDF shut down fourteen weapons manufacturing facilities in Judea and Samaria over the past year, as part of its effort to combat the flooding of guns in the Palestinian arena. In 2021, only nine such workshops were shuttered, while in 2020, fifty were shut down.

The IDF confiscated four hundred ninety-three firearms in Judea and Samaria in 2022, compared to three hundred ninety-seven last year.