JERUSALEM — Israel has reported a sharp drop in Israeli casualties from Palestinian attacks both inside Israel as well as in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The government report said most of the planned suicide attacks by insurgency groups were foiled.

"2004 was the fourth year of the current round of the conflict with the Palestinians," the report said. "It was characterized by several trends, the most prominent of which was a 45 percent drop in the number of those killed."

The report said 117 people were killed in the Palestinian war in 2004, Middle East Newsline reported. In 2003, the number of casualties was 214.

The government also reported a 41 percent decrease in those injured in Palestinian attacks. In 2004, 589 people were injured as opposed to 1,004 in 2003.

Most of the decline was attributed to the foiling of suicide attacks by Israeli authorities. The report cited 15 suicide strikes in 2004, 0.4 percent of all attacks, but which caused 55 deaths, or 48 percent of the total number of casualties.

At the same time, the report cited an increase in Palestinian mortar and rocket attacks. The report said casualties from such attacks decreased in 2004.

"It must be pointed out that the decline in the number of suicide attacks does not indicate any difference whatsoever in the motivation of the terrorist organizations to attack Israeli targets," the report said.

"Regarding the number of warnings throughout 2004, there was no significant change in the number of warnings from month to month."

Attacks by the ruling Fatah movement declined in 2004 while strikes ordered by Hamas and Islamic Jihad increased significantly. The report said that in many cases Hamas attacks comprised of missile and mortar strikes. In 2004, Kassam-class short-range missile strikes increased by 40 percent while mortar attacks rose by six-fold.

[On Friday, Hamas gunners in the northern Gaza Strip fired Kassam missiles for the seventh straight day. The missiles landed in Israel's western Negev desert.]

The report, based on figures from the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency, said 526 attacks were foiled in the West Bank in 2004. The peak in the success of Israel's security forces was in March 2004, when 21 attacks were foiled at what was termed the last minute.

Israel attributed many of the failures of Palestinian insurgents to the security fence along the northern West Bank. The report said insurgency groups were trying to bypass the fence, dig underneath the barrier or use minors to carry bombs into Israel.

"Today, the main routes for dispatching terrorists are: From Samaria [northern West Bank] via Ramallah to Jerusalem, or from Samaria via Jerusalem's northern neighborhoods to into the city," the report said. "With the construction of the security fence, which makes it difficult for the terrorist organizations to perpetrate attacks, the terrorist organizations have increasingly used minors and women to perpetrate suicide attacks by exploiting their innocent appearance, in an attempt to fool security force personnel at the various checkpoints."