UN: This Year Could Be Deadliest for Palestinians in West Bank
This is according to the United Nations' Middle East envoy.
Speaking to the UN Security Council (UNSC) this week, the special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, said that "a spike in fatal violence" is causing 2022 to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2005, the year when the UN started tracking fatalities.
Over the past month, he said, Israeli forces killed 32 Palestinians – including six children – and injured 311 during demonstrations, clashes, attacks, and search-and-arrest operations.
Throughout this year, Israeli raids and attacks in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds also killed 125 Palestinians.
In his address, Wennesland stated that "mounting hopelessness, anger and tension have once again erupted into a deadly cycle of violence that is increasingly difficult to contain," and that "too many people, overwhelmingly Palestinian have been killed and injured."
He said the "immediate priority is to work to calm the situation and reverse the negative trends on the ground."
In the UNSC meeting, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN – Riyad Mansour – stated: "Our people, our children, our youth are being killed, and they will not die in vain."
He told council members that "What happens next is your responsibility…We knocked on every door, searched for any avenue leading to freedom and dignity, justice and redress, shared peace and security."
Source: Middle East Monitor
