Students describe attack by settlers on West Bank elementary school
Students too scared to attend class
Israel's allies alarmed by West Bank violence
Students accuse army of joining attack
By Mohammed Torokman Ali Sawafta
JERICHO/RAMALLAH, Sept 17 (Reuters) -Half of the pupils stayed away from classes at an elementary school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday, a day after it was attacked by Jewish settlers with wooden bats in violence that has surged since the Gaza war erupted.
This type of attack, which wounded seven people according to Palestinian officials, has tested the patience of Israel's allies, including the United States, who have called for restraint in the West Bank as the death toll climbs in Gaza and the conflict spreads in the Middle East.
A video filmed by Israeli activists and posted on social media showed a band of young men striking people who were screaming in the yard of Al-Ka'abneh school during the assault in a Bedouin area near Jericho on Monday.
"Half of the students today did not come to school because of the state of fear and terror they experienced yesterday because of the settlers' attack on the school," Ahmed Nasser, an official at the Palestinian Ministry of Education, told Reuters.
Violence against Palestinian villages was on the rise even before the outbreak of the Gaza war, as settlement building has spread unchecked across the West Bank.
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel, triggering the Gaza conflict, such attacks by Israeli settlers have increased. Figures last month from the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA showed them running at around four per day.
"We were studying as usual in class, then they started saying that settlers attacked the schools, I was able to gather my siblings so that nothing happens to them," said student Aya Mlehat. "I was able to gather them in a classroom, and the settlers started banging on the class trying to open it against our will."
'WE RAN AND HID'
Palestinians and rights groups regularly accuse Israeli forces of standing by as attacks take place and sometimes even joining in themselves. Legal action against violent settlers is rare.
"The army came along with the settlers, we ran and hid in a class with a teacher, and did not go back to the class... He told us to stay low under the tables, we stayed under the table and he told us to be quiet," said student Malak Mlehat.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Countries including the United States have begun imposing sanctions on individuals and face pressure to do more and to curb the expansion of settlements on land the Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state, a key part of the two-state solution favoured by Western countries.
At the same time the West Bank has witnessed almost daily sweeps by Israeli forces that have involved thousands of arrests and regular gunbattles between security forces and Palestinian fighters.
More than 703 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, including both fighters and unarmed civilians, according to the Palestinian health authorities.
In the same period, about 40 Israeli troops and civilians have been killed in attacks by Palestinians or in clashes with fighters, according to figures from Israel's domestic security agency.
Most countries deem Jewish settlements built on land Israel occupied in a 1967 Middle East war as illegal, and their expansion has for decades been among the most contentious issues between Israel, the Palestinians and the international community. Israel cites biblical, historical and political ties to the area.
Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Alex Richardson
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
