Last update - 00:00 12/02/2008
Police: Criminal bombings, other arms offenses up dramatically in north
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
The northern part of the country saw a sharp increase in weapons crimes and stone-throwing last year, according to data published yesterday by the Northern District Police.
According to the data, there were 221 incidents of stone-throwing in 2007, compared to 136 the previous year - a 62-percent increase.
The number of criminally motivated bombings increased more than fivefold, from 11 in 2006 to 60 last year. There was also a 30-percent increase in grenade attacks and a 13.5-percent increase in shootings.
However, the number of murders was almost halved, from 76 in 2006 to 39 in 2007, and the number of robberies fell from 820 to 769.
Despite a drop in the number of traffic accidents, 138 people died in car crashes in the Northern District last year - more than in any other police district in the country. This translates into one fatal accident every 2.9 days.
At the briefing, Northern District police chief Major General Shimon Koren praised the cooperation police receive from mayors of Arab towns and said that his district has prepared a master plan, which still awaits approval, to put another 1,500 policemen in Arab towns. Currently, he said, many of these towns are understaffed.
Meanwhile, Police Commission David Cohen said earlier this week that dDuring the past year, homicide rates throughout Israel dropped 21 percent, with 118 cases reported.
Robberies went down by 20 percent, with the number standing at 3,292 incidents.
Police managed to substantially stem gas station robberies by 30 percent, compared with 2006.
One of its biggest failures, however, was its handling of violent robberies of elderly people, a crime that rose by 7 percent.
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