Israel notes 'significant' drop in Palestinian attacks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there has been a "significant decline" in Palestinian attacks on Israelis, after six months of near-daily violence that has cost more than 200 lives.

Speaking on Sunday at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said ministers would be presented with data from the Shin Bet domestic security agency that show a "significant decline in the scope of terrorist attacks".

Violence since October has left 200 Palestinians and 28 Israelis dead, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were allegedly carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli security officials, but others died during clashes and demonstrations.

An unnamed senior Shin Bet official was cited attributing the trend to "extensive Israeli preventive measures" which he said had brought the Palestinian public to feel that "escalation was pointless".

According to the official, exposing and apprehending the "Jewish terrorists" behind a deadly attack on Palestinians in a West Bank village last year, as well as arson attacks on churches, has also helped towards calm.

The official noted that the situation still remained tense and there were "relentless destabilisation attempts [by] Palestinian and other terror elements".

Shin Bet published in recent days its statistics on Palestinian attacks for March, counting 123 against Israeli civilians and security forces in Israel and the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Most of those alleged attacks were firebombings, but the data also covered stabbings, car-ramming attacks, gunfire, improvised bombs and grenades as well as projectile fire from the Gaza Strip.

February saw 155 attacks, compared with 169 in January, and in December Shin Bet counted 246 attacks, twice the number for March.

The number of fatalities in attacks has dropped accordingly, with one non-assailant - an American tourist in Tel Aviv - being killed in March.

The last Palestinian killed in the violence was Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, shot in the head on 24 March while wounded and posing no apparent further threat after stabbing and wounding a soldier.

The case is still being investigated, with a soldier facing possible manslaughter charges.