Palestinian Health Ministry: Israel killed 355 Palestinians, injured over 16,000 in 2021

A new report has revealed that Israeli forces killed 355 Palestinians and injured more than 16,500 others in the occupied Palestinian territories during the year 2021.

According to the report published by the Palestinian Health Ministry on Monday, 265 of the Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, mainly during the Israeli war on the besieged enclave in May last year, while 90 others were killed in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds, Palestine's official Wafa news agency reported.

Most of the injuries were also recorded in May during Israel’s 11-day war on Gaza, the report said, adding that 3000 injuries were hospitalized, including 2131 in the Gaza Strip, and 964 in hospitals in West Bank.

Israel launched a war on Gaza on May 10, 2021, which lasted until May 21 the same year after Palestinians in the impoverished territory rose up in protests in solidarity with their fellow countrymen in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, who were facing a significantly ferocious crackdown by Tel Aviv.

The war was the fourth wholesale military campaign by the occupying regime against the densely-populated Palestinian enclave.

Israeli forces brutalize Palestinian worshipers in al-Quds on 2nd night of Ramadan

It is customary for Israeli forces to exhibit increased levels of violence against Palestinians during the fasting month of Ramadan.

The report further said the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in 2021 jumped from 10 in April to 303 in May, adding that 87 children and 60 women were among those killed.

In the West Bank, the city of Nablus recorded the highest number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and reached 30, followed by 14 in Jenin, 13 in Ramallah and al-Bireh, 11 in al-Khalil, and 10 in al-Quds, the report said.

In the Gaza Strip, 120 Palestinians were killed in Gaza City, 75 in northern Gaza, and 34 in the Khan Yunis area in the south, it added.

Injuries by live bullets have jumped as well from 56 in April 2021 to 2,866 in May of the same year as a result of Israel's war on Gaza, The health ministry's report said, adding that one out of four live bullet injuries was a child less than 18 years old.

According to the report, 50% of the injuries were due to live bullets, and that out of the 964 injuries treated at the West Bank hospitals, 35% were in the upper extremities.

“This indicates that the Israeli soldiers had the will to kill Palestinians especially if we take in consideration the 50% live-bullet rate,” the ministry said in its report.

The latest report comes as Israeli regime forces have attacked Palestinians at the Damascus Gate of al-Quds, severely beating worshipers and carrying out arrests on the second night of the holy month of Ramadan.

Gaza resistance groups vow ‘harsh’ response to any Israeli escalation

The groups have called for mobilizing all efforts “to boost the resistance against the occupying Israeli regime.”

Israel occupied East al-Quds, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip during the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War in 1967. It later had to withdraw from Gaza.

More than 700,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank.

All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the settlement activities in several resolutions.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.

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