Arab terrorists have killed 25 Israelis this year, compared with 13 all of last year, according to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. Two people were killed since last Friday, one from a mortar shell and the other from a Kassam rocket. In the week concluding this past Tuesday, 35 rockets were fired, 22 of them on one day.

The rise in the death toll follows a continual decrease in 2002 and bears out warnings from nationalists that the security situation in Israel would worsen after the expulsion of Jews and the destruction of Jewish communities in the Gaza region and northern Samaria three summers ago.