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.

The Israeli colonial regime dominates every aspect of Palestinians’ lives — and in many cases, even after they die. Those who dare to resist are arrested, tortured, or summarily executed, and the indignities they suffer in life extend into their death, manifested in one of Israel’s most morbid colonial practices: withholding the bodies of the slain. 

Despite the continuation of resistance, Palestinian deaths dropped in comparison to the Israeli onslaught of the previous weeks. This means one thing: the decision to kill is political.

As Mondoweiss has continued to point out, this signals the revival of the decades-old Israeli policy of “liquidation,” an attempt to restore Israeli deterrence through the obscene practice of raising the Palestinian body count.

In recent weeks, Palestinians across the West Bank have organized themselves into small “battalions” of both armed and unarmed youth to confront the constant Israeli invasions of their villages and homes. Not much is known about them, nor about the youth that makes up these decentralized groups, but they continue to appear because Israeli army and settler provocation show no signs of waning.

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.

It is only a matter of time before the Israeli military and security apparatus unleashes its next wave of collective punishment in response to the Jerusalem twin bombings. We are merely waiting before the calm inevitably gives way to the storm.

Palestinian youth and resistance fighters in Nablus continue to resist settler-colonial encroachment and pay the price for it. Two Palestinians died during recent clashes with the Israeli army near Joseph’s tomb, while a resistance fighter succumbed to wounds sustained last summer within the same 24 hours.