The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has confirmed, 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.
In OCHA’s biweekly Protection of Civilians Report, covering the period from 6th to 19th of November, it 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.
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 village of the Bethlehem district, in the south of the West Bank, and Urif village, in the north of the West Bank, near Nablus.
OCHA said, in its report, that 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-coated metal bullets, and the rest were treated for tear gas inhalation.
Settler attacks were not confined to the schools, Ma’an further reports. 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 in their lands in Susiya village, near Hebron; the vandalizing of 21 vehicles in the Salfit area, Burin, Zatara and Huwwara, in the Nablus district, and the stoning of a number of Palestinian homes in Urif.
OCHA also confirmed that 20 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished or seized in East Jerusalem and Area C, which make up more than 60% of the area of the West Bank, on the grounds of a lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 20 individuals. Four of the targeted structures, located in three Area C communities, had been provided as humanitarian assistance in response to previous demolitions.
