Palestinians prevent Israeli settlers from breaking into Hebron kindergarten

Palestinian families and activists prevented a number of Israeli settlers from raiding a kindergarten in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron yesterday.

Youth Against Settlement (YAS) coordinator Issa Amro said that a number of settlers and their children attempted to enter a kindergarten on Al-Shuhada Street in Hebron’s Old City, but that Palestinian locals were able to prevent them from crossing the fence surrounding the school.

Israeli settlers in Hebron often gather in Al-Shuhada Street and the neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida during the Jewish holiday of Purim.

The settlers chanted a number of anti-Palestinian slogans, including some hailing Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Palestinian Muslims in Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994.

Located in the centre of Hebron, the Old City was divided into Palestinian and Israeli-controlled areas, known as H1 and H2, following the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre.

Some 800 illegal Israeli settlers now live under the protection of the Israeli military in the Old City, surrounded by more than 30,000 Palestinians.

Palestinian residents of the Old City face a large Israeli military presence on a daily basis, with at least 20 checkpoints set up at the entrances of many streets, as well as the entrance of the Ibrahimi Mosque itself.

Additionally, Palestinians are not allowed to access much of Al-Shuhada Street with their homes and shops welded shut.

Israeli settlers attempted to raid a kindergarten in occupied Hebron whilst chanting ant-Palestinian slogans, on 12 March 2017