Terror attacks and the number of Israelis killed by Palestinian West Bank terror in 2025 dropped substantially compared to 2023-2024, the IDF said on Monday.
According to the military, there were 847 Palestinian terrorist attacks in 2023, leading to 35 Israeli deaths, in comparison to 504 attacks in 2024, which resulted in 41 killed Israelis.
In contrast, the number of Palestinian terrorist attacks in 2025 dropped to 57, leading to a lower number of 20 dead Israelis.
In the wider perspective, the level of Palestinian terror is still far worse than in 2021, when three Israelis were killed overall, but it is at the best point it has been since the war started, and the number of terror-related incidents was comparable to the 50 incidents in 2020 and the 48 in 2019.
Despite significant improvements in bringing down deadly Palestinian terror rates, the IDF has only lowered the volume of Palestinians infiltrating into Israel from 12,406 in 2024 to 8,636 in 2025.
Although the army is proud of its progress against deadly Palestinian terror, it still views this reduction as insufficient and a failure that needs further correction.
Another area where the IDF has improved is regarding the number of rock-throwing and Molotov cocktail attacks.
2025 saw the lowest total in years, down to 1,015 incidents from 1,230 in 2024, 3,256 in 2023, 3,779 in 2022, and 8,633 in 2021.
Molotov cocktail attacks have lower numbers in 2025
The IDF said that the reduction in the number of Palestinian terrorist attacks and of rock-throwing and Molotov cocktail attack incidents came about due to several factors.
One of them, considered to be the main one, has been the IDF taking over refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams at the start of 2025, including demolishing some buildings that had been used as either focal points for terror groups or had obscured the military’s ability to quickly enter and exit from those areas.
Along with a more proactive policy of not tolerating even more minor incidents of public disorder, the IDF said that this has eliminated most of the capacity of violent Palestinians to gather in large groups.
Another change involved IDF Central Command chief Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth convincing the legal establishment to approve changes to the open fire rules in the case of rock throwing or Molotov cocktail attacks against moving vehicles.
Because there have been many cases where such rock throwing or Molotov cocktail attacks have led to deaths, given that vehicles traveling at high speeds often lose control upon being hit by a rock, Bluth received permission for soldiers to open fire in such incidents when necessary.
In the past, the rules were restrictive in nearly all cases of rock throwing, given that it is generally not deadly.
Addressing the number of Palestinians the IDF killed in 2025, the military put the number at 240, down from 500 in 2024 and 504 in 2023. This number was still higher than the 155 total in 2022, the 77 total in 2021, the 20 total in 2020, and the 27 total in 2019.
While the IDF has said that 96% of those killed were terrorists, it has acknowledged that the number of those Palestinians killed who were an imminent threat, such as in a gunfight, dropped in 2025 to 42% from 72% in 2024.
The IDF considers Palestinians terrorists if they are caught in a terror scene and resist arrest, even if it turns out later, after the fog of battle clears, that they were not armed at the time.
In addition, the same would apply to known terrorists who are resisting arrest by fleeing, where soldiers believe the person in question will escape if they do not open fire.
Conversely, many human rights groups and most of the world have said that at least some, if not many, of the Palestinian deaths in the West Bank in this context could have been avoided had people been arrested or dealt with more delicately in cases where soldiers on the scene clearly had the upper hand.
Regarding intercepting and confiscating weapons, in 2025, the IDF seized 1,373 weapons, compared with 1,095 in 2024.
In terms of seizing terror funds, the IDF in 2025 confiscated NIS 17 million, having confiscated NIS 9.5 million in 2024.
The confiscation process must now be creative and not only involve seizing cash but also advanced forms of funds like bitcoin and even harder-to-track items, like bartering for expensive furniture.