JERUSALEM, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday called the past year the "quietest" for the country's southern communities in 17 years, with the lowest number of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

"The first year of my government was the quietest" since the 2005 Disengagement Plan, according to which Israel unilaterally evacuated settlers and its armed forces from inside the Gaza Strip, Bennett said in his televised remarks at a parliamentary security committee meeting.

"The numbers are clear: in 2019, 1,291 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. In 2020, 176. In 2021, 3,520 rockets, and in 2022 -- only six rockets, with no casualties and no injuries," he noted.

Israel and Hamas, ruling faction of Gaza, fought their heaviest round of fighting since 2014 in May 2021, before Bennett was sworn in as prime minister in June.

"This is the result of a determined and clear policy" of aggressive counter-attacks for every rocket or incendiary balloon launched from Gaza, the prime minister said.

Militants in the Gaza Strip traditionally fire rockets and balloons attached with incendiary materials toward Israel as part of their struggle against the blockade Israel has imposed on the Palestinian enclave since 2007. Enditem

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