Israeli forces, Wednesday, raided a school to the west of Ramallah, where they detained students and the teaching staff inside the school and prevented them from leaving for almost two hours, according to the school principle.The principle, Samir Badir, told WAFA Palestinian News & Info Agency that Israeli soldiers raided the school in a vicious manner, under the pretext of throwing rocks at the soldiers, and imposed a tight siege on the school; preventing anyone from entering or leaving the school for about two hours.
The principle added that this is the second time such incident happens, however under a different pretext.
He said that Israeli soldiers threatened to shut down the school, which is located near an illegal Israeli settlement, an Israeli military camp and a road used by settlers, stressing that Israeli forces await the chance to take over the school for the benefit of settlement expansion.
The army previously carried out numerous attacks, with the deliberate and reckless use of force against schools and educational facilities across the West Bank, in a serious violation of international law and students’ right to pursue education in a safe environment.
The Global Coalition to protect Education from Attack said, “During situations of armed conflict, attacks on education may violate international humanitarian and criminal law and constitute war crimes (or crimes against humanity during war or peacetime) as set out in the 1907 Hague Regulations, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and customary international humanitarian law.”
During the July aggression on the Gaza Strip, Israel bombarded several UNRWA-run schools, which Human Rights Watch, along with worldwide condemnations, slammed as “a war crime.”
