UNITED NATIONS (Dispatches) – The UN Mideast envoy said 2022 is on course to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the UN started tracking fatalities in 2005, and he called for immediate action to calm “an explosive situation” and move toward renewing Zionist-Palestinian negotiations.
Tor Wennesland told the UN Security Council that “mounting hopelessness, anger and tension have once again erupted into a deadly cycle of violence that is increasingly difficult to contain,” and “too many people, overwhelmingly Palestinian have been killed and injured.”
In a grim assessment, the special coordinator for the Middle East so-called peace process said the downward spiral in the West Bank and current volatile situation stem from decades of violence that has taken a toll on Palestinians, the prolonged absence of negotiations, and the failure to resolve key issues fueling the Zionist aggression.
Wennesland said his message to the international community in recent weeks has been clear: “The immediate priority is to work to calm the situation and reverse the negative trends on the ground.”
In the past month, the UN envoy said 32 Palestinians including six children were killed by Zionist troops and 311 injured during demonstrations, clashes, search-and-arrest operations, and attacks.
Wennesland said the month saw “a spike in fatal violence” that has 2022 on track to be the deadliest in the West Bank.
More than 125 Palestinians have been killed in Zionist raids in the West Bank and east Al-Quds this year.
Ongoing Zionist arrest raids in the West Bank pose a serious challenge to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority.
The Zionist regime occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and has built more than 130 illegal settlements there, many of which resemble small towns, with apartment blocks, shopping malls and industrial zones. The Palestinians want the West Bank to form the main part of their future state. Most countries view the settlements as a violation of international law.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, delivered an impassioned address to the Security Council on Friday, saying: “Our people, our children, our youth are being killed, and they will not die in vain.”
“What happens next is your responsibility,” he told council members. “We knocked on every door, searched for any avenue leading to freedom and dignity, justice and redress, shared peace and security.”