Published 27 December 2022
On Nov. 1, Benjamin Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing bloc won the Israeli parliamentary election by garnering 64 out of the 120 seats in parliament.
For Palestinians, 2022 has been a challenging year marked by escalating Israeli crackdowns and the anti-Palestinian right-wing bloc's victory in Israel's parliamentary election, which have further dimmed the peace
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Since the beginning of the year, the violence between Palestinians and Israeli security forces has intensified. Israel launched the "Operation Breakwater" in March to crack down on Palestinian militants by carrying out frequent raids and arrests in the West Bank.
A total of 146 Palestinians were killed by Israel in the West Bank in 2022, the deadliest year since 2006, according to figures released in December by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In addition, 35 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority has so far reported 167 Palestinian deaths in the West Bank as result of Israeli attacks this year.
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Witnessing the continued deterioration of the security and economic conditions in the West Bank intertwined with the escalating clashes with Israel, the Palestinians have become more convinced that peace will remain out of reach for the foreseeable future.
What made the matters worse for the Palestinians is the continued one-sided support to Israel by the United States, which largely ignores the Palestinian rights adopted by the international community.
In July, U.S. President Joe Biden made a short trip to the region, during which he spent about 40 hours in Israel but limited his stay in the West Bank city of Bethlehem to barely an hour.