2022 among deadliest years for Palestinians in West Bank, UN envoy says
New York (QNN)- United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, said on Friday that 2022 is on course to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2005.
During the 15-member UN Security Council’s quarterly open debate on Friday, Wennesland said, “So far, 2022 is on course to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs began systematically tracking Palestinian fatalities in 2005.”
The UN envoy noted that much of the violence took place in the context of military operations to arrest what Israeli occupation authorities claimed were Palestinians suspected of involvement in attacks or planned attacks on Israelis.
“Too many people, overwhelmingly Palestinians, have been killed and injured in daily violence. Mounting hopelessness, anger and tension have once again erupted into a deadly cycle of violence that is increasingly difficult to contain,” Wennesland said.
In total,” he added, “32 Palestinians, including six children, were killed by Israeli forces during demonstrations, clashes, search-and-arrest operations, attacks and alleged attacks against Israelis, and other incidents, and 311 Palestinians, including one woman and eight children, were injured.”
Wennesland continued, “Tensions were particularly high around Nablus, where settlers impeded main routes for Palestinian residents and, on several occasions, groups of Israeli settlers entered the Palestinian town of Huwwara, south of Nablus, damaging Palestinian property and prompting clashes with residents, in some cases in the presence of Israeli Security Forces.”
“During the reporting period, Israeli authorities demolished, seized or forced owners to demolish 38 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C and three in East Jerusalem, displacing 81Palestinians,” the UN official added. “The demolitions were carried out due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.”
Expressing alarm at the intensity of violence in the occupied West Bank, and deploring that children continue to be the victims of violence, Wennesland reiterated that perpetrators of all such acts must be held accountable, and said that security forces must exercise maximum restraint.
Amid a situation in a downward spiral, marked by an increase in violence across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, determined actions by both parties are urgently needed to reverse negative trends on the ground, the senior United Nations official for the Middle East peace process told the Security Council yesterday.
