With the Israeli occupation killing 13 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank between 25 July and 10 August, including three children, the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank and Israel by Israeli occupation forces has so far this year reached 167, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has disclosed in a report.
This figure surpasses the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces throughout 2022, which amounted to 155.
In addition to the Israeli army killings, an Israeli settler shot and killed a Palestinian man and injured two others during a settler attack in Burqa village, near Ramallah, on 4 August. This raised the number of Palestinians killed by settlers in the West Bank from the beginning of 2023 until 7 August to seven.
UNOCHA confirmed that 276 Palestinians, including at least 60 children, were injured by Israeli forces across the West Bank, including nine people by live ammunition, between 25 July and 7 August.
Since the beginning of the year, 683 Palestinians have been injured with live ammunition by Israeli forces in the West Bank, more than double during the same period in 2022, which amounted to 307.
In the first six months of 2023, the UN recorded 591 settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage or both.
This is a 39 per cent increase to the monthly average compared with 2022, during which the highest number of settler-related incidents since the UN began recording such data in 2006 was reported.
UNOCHA added that the Israeli occupation authorities demolished, confiscated or forced people to demolish 56 structures in East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank, including six homes, citing the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible to obtain.
As a result, 23 Palestinians, including 12 children, were displaced, and the livelihoods of more than 3,500 others were affected.
