Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians over the past week, and 17 Palestinians since the start of 2022. Of the 17 Palestinians killed, three were children.

Israel killed three Palestinians on Tuesday in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed by Israel since the start of this year to 15.

The Israeli army claimed its soldiers shot Mohammad Rezq Salah as he was allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at cars on the highway, but his family says he was 300 meters away from the location when he was shot.

Bilal Rawajba was shot by Israeli forces at the Huwara military checkpoint on November 4, 2020. His family has been trying to determine his whereabouts ever since.

Tensions are flaring again in Sheikh Jarrah as right-wing Israeli lawmakers and Jewish settlers continue to incite violence ahead of the looming displacement of another Palestinian family from the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood. Scuffles ensued over the weekend after the far- right Israeli lawmaker, Itamar Ben Gvir of the Religious Zionism alliance, “opened” an office in Sheikh Jarrah, on the property of the Salem family, who are under threat of expulsion.

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on Tuesday afternoon, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed by Israel over the past week to five.

It is not enough to be “technically” truthful, when the full truth of the matter is often right in front of us. Choosing to say that people like Hamad, al-Hathalin, and Asaad were not is an injustice to their memory, and to all the other Palestinian victims who have “died” as a result of Israel’s occupation.

The Israeli army concluded its investigation last week into the death of Omar Asaad, an 80-year-old dual Palestinian-American citizen who was killed during a violent Israeli raid on his hometown in the occupied West Bank in January. The internal army investigation, which came after mounting pressure from US officials, concluded that Asaad’s death was a “grave and unfortunate event, resulting from a moral failure and poor decision-making on the part of the soldiers.” The US State Department, however, said they were not satisfied with the findings of the army’s investigation, nor with the disciplinary actions taken against some of the soldiers, and that they expect Israeli officials to carry out a “comprehensive criminal investigation.” 

The biggest obstacle to saving the fragile ecosystems of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea is Israel.

Amnesty International is the latest human rights organization to declare Israel an apartheid state, calling for an end to the “system of oppression and domination” it imposes on the millions of Palestinians living under its rule.