Amer Abu Zaytoun, 16, was shot and killed with a bullet to the head when Israeli forces invaded Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus. Abu Zaytoun is the fourth martyr to be killed by the Israeli military during the first week of 2023.
Israel has already killed two Palestinians and demolished two homes in 2023, signaling that ‘Operation Break the Wave’ is far from over.
2022 was a moment of truth.
The year laid bare the political reality in Palestine from the river to the sea, dispelling any illusions that we may have had about the nature of “the conflict,” as it has been glibly called by the mainstream media. Two such illusions can be discarded immediately — for Palestinians, that the Palestinian Authority’s collaborationism can be maintained indefinitely, and for the Israeli state, that Zionism is anything other than a settler-colonial project that must constantly be at war with the Palestinian people.
The year 2022 was unlike any other we have witnessed in over a decade as Palestinian resistance was back on the agenda.
Operation Break the Wave has been the Israeli response. The counterinsurgency campaign was launched in late February and had a singular purpose: to break the back of a newly-emerging phenomenon of armed Palestinian resistance.
Mondoweiss has compiled a timeline to contextualize and better understand this pivotal moment in Palestinian history, which continues to unfold before our eyes.
On Thursday, December 22nd, Israeli forces shot and killed 23-year-old Ahmad Atef Daraghmeh, a promising soccer player, in the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus. Daraghmeh was the 229th Palestinian to be killed this year and the 15th Palestinian to be killed in December alone.
Human rights defender and lawyer Salah Hammouri was deported from his homeland on December 18, after the Israeli government revoked his Jerusalem residency under the Israeli “breach of loyalty” law.
Israeli forces killed Jana Zakarneh, 16, during a search-and-arrest operation in the West Bank city of Jenin. Zakarneh was standing on the roof of her family’s home near the Israeli invasion when she was shot with a single bullet to the head, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Zakarneh is the 15th minor to be killed in Jenin since the start of the year and the 17th Palestinian woman or girl to be killed in 2022. This year, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank has hit record numbers — the highest since the UN began documenting such killings in 2005.
In the last two days Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians, including three resistance fighters.
On Thursday, December 8, Israeli forces invaded various towns in the Jenin governorate, north of Jerusalem, killing Atta Shalabi, 46, Sidqi Zakarneh, 29, and Tareq Al-Damaj, 29. The day before on Wednesday Mujahed Najjar Hamed, 32, was shot and killed on after a days-long manhunt for the resistance fighter, who is from the village of Silwad.
An eyewitness described the Jenin killings as “a true massacre” to local reporters.
In the last three days, Israel has killed 8 Palestinians across the West Bank and the Naqab, including Palestinian resistance fighters Muhammad Al-Saadi and Naim Zubeidi, as well as 13-year-old Issa Hani Talaqat.
The three Palestinians killed overnight were identified by the Palestinian Health Ministry as Jawad Rimawi, 22, Thafer Rimawi, 21, and Mufid Ikhlayel, 44. A fourth Palestinian was killed later on Tuesday morning after carrying out a car-ramming that left one Israeli wounded.