2022 was deadliest year for Palestinians in nearly two decades: Report
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The Washington Post highlights that Israeli occupation forces murdered more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank than in any previous year since 2005.
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Relatives of martyr Mahdi Hashash mourning during his funeral in the occupied West Bank on November 9, 2022 (Reuters)
Earlier, on December 17, the UN called 2022 the deadliest year for the occupied West Bank as Israeli aggression brutally murdered 150 Palestinians throughout the year according to the organization.
In the same vein, The Washington Post reported that Israeli occupation forces murdered more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank than in any previous year since 2005, following the last major Palestinian Intifada (Uprising).
“2022 was the deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians in nearly two decades," the report stressed.
The report highlighted that Israeli forces murdered 146 Palestinians in the West Bank and predominantly the eastern part of occupied Al-Quds through December 19 of this year, compared to 75 in 2021, citing numbers released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
In reference to rising Israeli settlers’ violence, four additional Palestinians were murdered by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, the report added.
Who did “Israel” Kill?
The report noted that more than half of those murdered in 2022 were under the age of 25, pointing out that among Palestinians killed by IOF were two American citizens, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and 78-year-old Omar Assad, whose murders drew international attention and heightened international condemnation of “Israel”.
“Many of the casualties in the West Bank this year were young Palestinians who have only ever known military occupation,” the report acknowledged.
“No one is being held accountable in most cases where Palestinians are killed,” said Dror Sadot, spokesperson for the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights - B'Tselem - as quoted by The Washington Post. “There is no one demanding accountability.”
The report warned that Itamar Ben-Gvir, “Israel's” “national” security minister, has proposed granting Israeli police and troops more leeway in using live ammunition and insulating them from criminal liability for killing or hurting Palestinians.
A spokesperson from the Palestinian rights group Al-Haq said, as quoted by The Washington Post, that “many of those slain in Israeli raids this year appeared to be bystanders, or were victims of excessive force."
United Nations Security Council reported this month that Israeli fire killed a teenage girl Jana Zakarneh on her roof in Jenin in early December as a raid was taking place nearby, he added.
“Days earlier, the spokesperson said, Israeli forces fatally shot a 16-year-old boy who was throwing stones at a checkpoint outside Ramallah,” according to the report.
“The continued killings of Palestinians by Israeli security forces in incidents where they did not appear to present an imminent threat to life” are “disturbing,” he said in his statement.
“I am increasingly concerned by the fragility of the current political and security dynamics, particularly in the occupied West Bank, including East Al Quds (Jerusalem),” he added as quoted by the media outlet.
