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Israel soldiers assault Palestinian school staff with rifle butts, suffocate school children

December 29, 2021 at 3:43 pm

Students, wearing protective face masks, sit in class in Gaza City on October 10, 2020, after the partial reopening of schools, amid the coronavirus pandemic, in the Palestinian enclave. [MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images]

Israeli occupation forces today attacked Palestinian school staff and students from the town of Tuqu, based in the occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem, reported Wafa news agency.

According to the Ministry of Education (MoE), a group of Israeli soldiers attempted to break into the campus of Tuqu Secondary Boys School, until they were caught and stopped by the school staff.

Following attacks against the school staff for preventing them from breaking into the school campus, the soldiers also beat the teachers with rifle butts, resulting in the school principal and teachers suffering with multiple bruises on their bodies and faces.

Moreover, the Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and concussion bombs inside the school, causing suffocation cases among dozens of students and staff.

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The MoE pointed that Tuqu Secondary Boys School is a frequent target of Israeli military assaults, including opening gunfire towards the schools, obstructing students’ access to them and heavy military deployments in the surrounding area.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Human rights abuses against the Palestinians and breaches of international law are common, say human rights organisations.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. All of Israel’s settlements are illegal under international law, which the apartheid state treats with contempt.