Dozens of Palestinian students in a southern village of the occupied West Bank held classes in the streets after an Israeli roadblock prevented them from reaching school.
Israeli forces on Monday blocked access to the village of Umm al-Kheir and closed the road leading to a school, residents told Anadolu.
The latest incident comes as the occupied West Bank sees a noticeable rise in violence by occupiers, often carried out under the protection of the Israeli army.
The West Bank has seen a rise in occupier attacks, with 443 assaults against Palestinians and their property recorded between February 28 and March 28, according to statistics from the official Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
Those attacks resulted in the killing of 10 Palestinians amid Israeli attempts to establish 14 illegal settlement outposts and the destruction of land and crops, as well as the setting of fires.
Israel, through its army and occupiers, has escalated attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the start of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023, killing more than 1,148 Palestinians, wounding around 11,750, and arresting about 22,000.
Defiance
Following the road blockade, students and parents held a sit-in, which was dispersed by tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers.
Defiant, the students held classes on the streets.
That night, Israeli occupiers blocked the road students use to reach their school, said Palestinian activist and teacher Tariq al-Hathaleen, commenting on the incident.
“We called the (Israeli) police, but to no avail. We also staged a sit-in, but nothing happened,” he told Anadolu, adding that the system protects them.
‘Blockading the road is a violation of our fundamental right, the right to education,’ he said.
Fifty-five students were unable to reach school, he said.