Save the Children says Israeli raids in West Bank forcing children out of school
Global child advocacy group Save the Children says Israel’s latest raids in areas of the northern occupied West Bank have confined entire communities to their homes, meaning children there cannot go to school.
The organisation says it also had to suspend its educational classes and child protection work in areas subjected to expansive raids, blocking more than 700 children from crucial services.
“While attention has been focused on Gaza, we must not take our eyes off child rights violations in the West Bank,” said Save the Children’s Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe Ahmad Alhendawi.
“All children deserve to go to school and have the fulfilling and productive futures it helps to unlock. Education is a right, as is a safe environment,” he said.
Children walk past a damaged car along a street that was bulldozed by Israeli troops in an eastern neighbourhood of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin
Israel’s army starts demolishing buildings in Jenin
Israeli forces have started tearing down homes and buildings in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, report our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
The operation follows an earlier warning from the Israeli military that troops would raze 24 structures in the camp, which it said is required for “operational” purposes.
The practice of declaring areas of the West Bank military training zones was revealed by an Israeli-Palestinian research group, Akevot, as a tactic to expel Palestinian villagers proposed in 1981 by then-Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon, who later became Israel’s prime minister in the early 2000s.
Homes are repeatedly demolished under military orders. Residents say the justifications vary – construction without permits, proximity to military training areas, or land claimed for settlement outposts – but the goal is the same: displacement.
