Two Palestinian students were injured when Israeli settlers attacked a school near the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. "Two students were injured, one with live ammunition in his hand and another with a stone in the head," the group said in a statement, according to Anadolu Agency. "Three Palestinian parents were also injured with rubber bullets while they were evacuating their children from the school," it added. The injuries occurred when a group of settlers attacked the school in the village of Qurif near Nablus, according to Mazen Shihadeh, the head of the area's local council. "The settlers were backed by Israeli troops who fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and teargas inside the school," he said.
Palestinian schools have long been subjected to Israeli violence. The Al-Laban-Al-Sawiya school in Nablus was attacked by settlers a few months ago and is constantly being attacked by the Israeli army, according to Palestinian residents.
A Palestinian school in the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar has faced demolition, along with the adjacent Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank. In February, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that at least 45 schools in Palestine were facing the threat of destruction by the Israeli authority. In a statement, the OCHA acting coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Roberto Valent, pointed out that a Palestinian school in east Jerusalem was destroyed by Israeli soldiers, and added, "The demolition was carried out on the grounds of a lack of Israeli-issued permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain."
