Omar Shakir writes:

While global attention is focused on Israel and Gaza, Israeli authorities are tightening their repression in the West Bank and Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians are surging. That repression was already at a peak before the October 7 Hamas-led attack that killed some 1200 people, mostly civilians, in Israel, but it has gotten much worse since.

Between January 1 and October 6, Israeli security forces killed more Palestinians in the West Bank – 192, including 40 children – than in any other year since 2005, when the United Nations began systematically recording fatalities. Since October 7, according to the UN, they have killed another 201 Palestinians, including 52 children; meaning they have killed more Palestinians in the West Bank in the last six weeks than in any entire year since 2005. Palestinians have killed 24 Israeli civilians and 4 security force members in 2023 in the West Bank as of November 16, the highest number in more than 15 years. 

Settlers have killed 15 Palestinians as of November 17. During the first eight months of 2023, settler violence soared to its highest level since the UN began recording this data in 2006; three incidents per day on average, up from two in 2022 and one in 2021. That rate has almost doubled since October 7. [Continue reading…]