Number of Israelis killed by Palestinians in 2022 highest since 2008
Twenty-seven Israeli civilians and soldiers have been killed by Palestinians in 2022, the highest number since 2008, according to a Middle East Eye analysis of United Nations figures.
The rise in casualties has seen Israeli commentators compare the current violence to the end of the Second Intifada in 2005, a year in which 51 Israelis were killed by Palestinians, according to Israeli rights group B'Tselem.
At the same time, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 139 Palestinians, including at least 30 children, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2022.
An additional 49 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip during a three-day Israeli bombardment in August, including 17 children, the youngest of whom was four-year- old Jamil Nijm Jamil Nijm.
In October, the United Nations said the monthly average number of Palestinians killed was at its highest since the UN started counting fatalities in 2005.
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On Tuesday, a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces after he stabbed three Israeli settlers to death near a settlement in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total number of Israelis killed by Palestinians this year to 27. Israeli media outlets reported that the death toll this year is 29.
In our analysis of UN figures over the years, MEE has excluded deaths resulting from major escalations of violence, such as Israeli military assaults on Gaza in 2008-09, 2012, 2014 and 2021.
Of the 27 Israelis who have died this year, 17 were killed in five different shooting and stabbing attacks in cities inside Israel, between March and May, while 10 have since been killed in various attacks in the West Bank.
The figures include four soldiers and six settlers. Three of the Israeli soldiers were targeted by armed Palestinians at army posts and checkpoints in Jerusalem, Nablus and Jenin.
The other soldier was killed during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp, which has for the past few months been the focus of Israel’s “Break the Wave” campaign, focused on crushing armed Palestinian resistance.
According to UN data, 30 Israelis were killed by Palestinians in 2008, while 497 Palestinians were killed by Israel.
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