Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reported Sunday a significant increase in terror-related activities in the West Bank, which they attributed to the hundreds of Palestinians released in the Shalit prisoner swap.

The activities have been spiked during the months of January and February, with an increase of smuggling money into the West Bank to finance terror attacks, an IDF official told local media on Sunday.

"Establishing new terror infrastructures requires a lot of money," The Jerusalem Post quoted the IDF official.

The funding, the officer said, would be used to finance strikes against Israeli civilians or to abduct Israeli soldiers.

Moreover, he said, the number of detentions made by the Palestinian National Authority dropped by about a half during 2011, which he attributed to the recent reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah.

Since October, when Israel exchanged 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for the captive soldier Gilad Shalit, the IDF has arrested seven of the released prisoners accused of engaging in terror activities.

The last arrest took place last week in a village in the West Bank, and the incident turned violent and ended up with a soldier being stabbed.