Israeli settler violence against Palestinians soared in 2022. Palestinians say the worrying trend will only worsen as right-wing extremists make their home in Israel’s new government.
The U.S. Justice Department has informed the Israeli government that the FBI will finally investigate the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian American journalist who was shot during an Israeli raid in May. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has already declared that Israel will not cooperate with the probe.
It is not Palestinians who seem most concerned about a major right-wing victory in Israeli elections next week, it is Israel’s liberal supporters in the United States.
Rayan Yasser Suleiman, 7, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon after he fell unconscious near his home in the town of Tuqu’ in the southern occupied West Bank. Rayan’s family says that his heart stopped and he collapsed after he ran in fear from Israeli soldiers who were raiding his home in search of alleged “stone-throwers.”
To me Hafez’s story is the embodiment of Israeli apartheid, and the themes I’ve covered for so many years reporting on the ground in occupied Palestine. It’s a story of violence, injustice, inequity, and a yearning for freedom in a place where oppression reigns supreme.
Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian teenager Oday Salah in the northern occupied West Bank district of Jenin on Thursday morning, just 24 hours after two Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in confrontations in Jenin. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that 149 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the year, 34 of whom were from the Jenin area.
Hundreds of Israeli soldiers raided the city in an operation to destroy the home of Raad Khazem, a 28-year-old Palestinian from Jenin who carried out a shooting attack in Tel Aviv earlier this year that killed three people.
The Israeli government has revised a list of draconian restrictions on the entry of foreigners into the occupied West Bank amid pressure from US and EU authorities, though rights groups say the regulations still maintain the same goal: demographic engineering and isolation of Palestinian society.
“I am deeply thankful for people who supported me, stood with me, reinforced me, and prayed for me, thank you,” Awawdeh said, after ending his 182-day hunger strike. Awawdeh, who lost more than half his weight during his strike will remain in an Israeli hospital for treatment until his release on October 2.
Days after the Israeli army raided and shuttered seven Palestinian civil society organizations, Israel is escalating its attacks on the groups, with Israeli intelligence officials reportedly threatening two of groups’ directors with arrest after calling them in for interrogation.