2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in decades. We kept a record of all those who were killed by Israeli state and settler violence. These are their names, faces, and stories.

Palestinian political prisoner Nasser Abu Hmeid, 50, died in Israeli custody on Tuesday morning, following a bout with cancer and months of “medical negligence” on part of Israeli authorities, according to his family and Palestinian prisoners groups. 

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 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.

Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian primary school in the Masafer Yatta area of the southern occupied West Bank on Wednesday, under the pretext that the school was built “illegally” in an active Israeli military firing zone. 

Following the demolition, an Israeli army spokesperson claimed that the school itself was a hoax and that it was an unoccupied building being used as a publicity stunt. But Palestinians from Masafer Yatta say the school, which was built with funding from the Palestinian Authority and EU, was built to give much-needed education access to school children living in remote areas of the occupied West Bank.

18-year-old Muhammad Murad Souf was killed Tuesday after carrying out a stabbing near the illegal Ariel settlement in the occupied West Bank that left three Israeli settlers dead. 

The raid lasted several hours, during which time Israeli forces surrounded several homes where members of the “Lion’s Den” group were reportedly fighting from. 

Samoudi’s death comes amidst heightened escalations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as Israeli forces continue to crack down on Palestinian armed resistance fighters, conducting near nightly, deadly raids into Palestinian towns, cities, and refugee camps.

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.