Israel demolishes Palestinian school in West Bank

Israeli occupation forces yesterday demolished a Palestinian school serving the Bedouin communities northwest of Jericho, in the central occupied West Bank, Anadolu news agency reported.

Human rights activist and head of the Al-Baydar Organisation for the Defence of Bedouin Rights, Hassan Malihat, said in a statement that the Israeli army stormed the Al-Kaabneh Bedouin school in the Al-Moarrajat area as construction and restoration works were taking place and confiscated building materials.

Malihat said the school serves the children of the Bedouin communities in the area from first to ninth grade.

He condemned the seizure of the building materials, stressing that “this will prevent students from receiving their education freely and safely”, describing the incident as a “heinous crime that is added to the continuous series of the [Israeli] occupation’s crimes against education, and its targeting of students, educational cadres, and institutions, without regard for international covenants and laws.”

He also stressed that these practices are a “flagrant violation of students’ right to safe and free education” and called on international, human rights and media institutions and organisations to assume their responsibilities in confronting the escalating violations of the Israeli occupation.

Israel prevents construction in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is under its administrative and security control.

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