The noteworthy drop in Israeli casualties from Palestinian attacks belies the fact that there has been "significant escalation on the ground in terms of the threat levels and the number of attempts to dispatch suicide bombers" in recent months, a senior officer in the Israel Defense Forces Central Command told reporters on Sunday.

Relaying data on violence in the territories during the past year, the officer said that 187 Palestinians currently in Israeli custody were involved in conspiracies to carry out suicide bombing attacks in 2006.

Last year, 11 Israeli citizens were killed in two suicide bombings perpetrated within the Israel proper, the lowest such figure since 2001.

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According to the senior officer, the greatest asset in the arsenal of the security forces is the ability to operate freely in Palestinian cities.

During the period of tahdiye (calm), between January and September of 2005, the IDF avoided entering Palestinian towns, but once the agreement that led to the calm collapsed, it was necessary to use greater numbers of troops in order to renew operations inside the cities.

"We used to deploy an entire battalion in the town of Qabatiya, near Jenin, and we would still encounter heavy fire," the officer says, to describe the situation following the tahdiye hiatus. "Now we have gone back to a situation in which we can carry out arrests using troops in two jeeps," he added.

Both suicide bomb attacks in 2006 took place in the same neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv. The first caused only injuries, but the second claimed 11 lives.

In the army, the drop in the number of suicide bombings is explained by the serious blow suffered by Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank.

In 2005, 23 Israelis were killed in attacks for which this particular Islamic Jihad ring was responsible. However, last year, 33 members of the ring were either killed or arrested. Five members are believed to have remained at large and appear to have made efforts to recruit others to their ranks, but the effectiveness of the group has suffered a serious blow.

In the West Bank, eight Israelis were killed - two soldiers and six civilians.

One new development this past year was the rise in the role of Gaza terrorist groups in controlling militants in the West Bank. Since the end of the war in Lebanon, the role of Hezbollah in the West Bank has also increased, following a reduction in the group's activities there during 2005.

The IDF claims that it has been successful at intercepting the transfer of funds to terrorist groups in the West Bank, estimating a 75 percent drop in transfers, but it also acknowledges that it lacks complete data.

During 2006 the IDF killed 130 militants in the West Bank. In its statistics, the army counts only eight civilian "bystanders" as having been killed in its operations, but human rights groups point to a much higher number.

A total of 559 shooting incidents, most targeting IDF forces, were registered in 2006, most of them in Palestinian towns; 303 explosive devices were detonated - and the army is concerned with the noticeable improvement in the technology used by militants.