UN:

Israeli Forces, Settlers’ Incursions into Palestinian Schools Increased in 2018

Rasa - A United Nations agency said that since the beginning of 2018 there has been a significant increase in incidents involving the entry of Israeli forces and settlers into Palestinian schools.

News ID: 441734

Date: 25 November 2018 - 18:07

RNA - In its biweekly Protection of Civilians Report covering the period from 6 to 19 November, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said that in the West Bank, 63 Palestinian children and nine adults were injured by Israeli forces during four separate raids into schools, one of which also involved Israeli settlers, WAFA reported.

Two of the affected schools are located in the H2 area of Hebron city, which is under full Israeli army and settler control, in Tuqu in the Bethlehem region in the south of the West Bank, and Urif village in the north of the West Bank near Nablus.

The raid into the Urif school involved some 50 Israeli settlers, reportedly from Yitzhar settlement, who stormed the school accompanied by Israeli forces. Two of the injuries were by live ammunition, nine by rubber bullets and the rest were treated for tear gas inhalation, said OCHA in its report.

Settler attacks were not confined to the schools. OCHA documented at least 11 Israeli settler attacks that resulted in Palestinian injuries and/or damage to Palestinian property.

In one incident in the old city of Hebron, settlers blocked and stoned a Palestinian ambulance while it was on its way to evacuate a patient, following coordination with the Israeli authorities; the third such incident in the past three months. Attacks also included the physical assault of three farmers who were working on their land in Susiya village near Hebron; the vandalizing of 21 vehicles in Kufr al-Dik in the Salfit area, Burin, Za’tara and Huwwara in the Nablus district, and Beit Eskaria in the Bethlehem area; and the stoning of a number of houses in Urif.

Following a series of similar incidents in previous weeks, Israeli settlers vandalized and reportedly attempted to set fire to a park in al-Mazra’a al-Qibliya village near Ramallah.

OCHA also said that 20 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished or seized in East Jerusalem and Area C, which make up more than 60 percent of the area of the West Bank, on the grounds of a lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 20 people. Four of the targeted structures, located in three Area C communities, had been provided as humanitarian assistance in response to previous demolitions.

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