Peace is often elusive in the Holy Land but the scale of the violence in the first six months of 2023 could have served as an indicator that this year would be the deadliest in more than two decades.
By the beginning of June Israeli forces had killed at least 156 Palestinians across Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip while at least 21 Israeli nationals, a Ukrainian and an Italian died in attacks by Palestinians.
According to media tallies, about half of the casualties inflicted by Israeli forces were civilians. They included 26 children, such as Mohammed al-Tamimi, a three-year-old Palestinian boy who died in hospital four days after he was shot in the head by soldiers while travelling in a car with his father near the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh.
