Bethlehem – A Palestinian schoolchild was injured with rubber-coated metal bullets fired by Israeli forces in Bethlehem in the early hours of Thursday.
Local sources said that a large number of Israeli occupation forces deployed since the early morning in the perimeter of Tuqu’ secondary school, east of Bethlehem, and started harassing the students, causing a state of fear among them.
The forces then fired rubber-coated metal bullets and sound bombs directly towards the students, injuring one.
Israeli forces’ attacks against Palestinian students has increased lately. This week, at least three incidents of attacks by the forces towards the children were reported, including firing teargas canisters, resulting in suffocating dozens of Palestinian students.
Israeli forces’ attacks on schools and other education-related incidents, including attacks on educational personnel, threats of attacks, military use of schools, and other interferences with education, significantly impacted Palestinian children’s right to access education.
In 2019, the United Nations documented 257 education-related incidents in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip that impacted children’s right to access education.
Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip are routinely denied many rights: right to life, right to education, right to adequate housing, and are denied access to healthcare, among other rights denials inherent in a decades-long Israeli military occupation with no end in sight.
