Ramallah, October 28, 2024— As the ongoing genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory intensifies, the new school year has begun amid a record number of violations against Palestinian children's right to education. The escalation of Israeli settler violence and military incursions has severely disrupted the educational system.
Israeli military incursions and repeated lockdowns of Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps have severely hindered students' ability to attend school consistently since the beginning of the school year, creating a hostile environment that endangers their safety and mental health.
“Each child has the right to safely access school under international law,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at Defense for Children International - Palestine. “Children in Gaza have missed a year of school due to Israel’s genocide. And in the occupied West Bank, before Palestinian children even reach their school in the morning, their academic potential is threatened by Israeli military installments restricting their movements, Israeli forces routinely harassing them, and Israeli settlers who frequently target them.”
DCIP gathered testimonies from educational staff who witnessed violations of Palestinian children's right to education due to Israeli military incursions and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
Both students and educational staff are subjected to a volatile and hostile educational environment, which deeply affects their mental health and severely undermines the ability to deliver or receive quality education. The constant fear and danger that follow students on their way to school further compound the significant obstacles they face in accessing education.
Deliberate attacks on schools
Martyr Izzat Abu Al-Rob Secondary School
Israeli forces entered the Palestinian town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank around 11:30 a.m. on September 19, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Around 400 students and 30 staff members were trapped in the school for five hours without food.
The educational staff evacuated the students to the school’s ground floor amidst continuous Israeli gunfire around the school. During the military operation, Israeli forces fired at the back walls of the school in addition to the Palestinian flagpole on the roof of the school.
Israeli authorities confirmed the evacuation plan for the children and school buses arrived to transfer them under the supervision of heavily armed Israeli forces. However, the educational staff were prevented from leaving the school with the students and stayed for an additional hour.
Israeli forces blocked the buses from transporting the students back to their homes, forcing them to seek refuge in the homes of town residents, resulting in communication with their families being cut off.
On the same date, the Qabatiya Elementary School was also besieged by the Israeli forces during the same incursion and surrounding the school. This left 590 students from the first to the ninth grades, and educational staff, trapped inside the school until the evening amid continuous gunfire in the school's vicinity. They were evacuated via buses after coordination with the Israeli liaison office around 6:30 p.m.
UNRWA Tulkarem Girls Elementary School
Israeli forces entered the Tulkarem refugee camp, east of Tulkarem city in the northern occupied West Bank around 10 a.m. on September 10, according to documentation collected by DCIP. The UNRWA Tulkarem Girls Elementary School was besieged and surrounded by Israeli military forces, trapping 320 students inside the school until the late evening.
The students were evacuated to the school’s ground floor to protect them from heavy gunfire around the school, during which the students and staff faced a lack of food and access to toilets.
After the students were approved to be evacuated, after about eight hours of besiegement, they were dropped off at a temporary military checkpoint set up by military vehicles, which forced the students to pass through the checkpoint to reach their homes.
Around 50 to 70 students from different schools in Tulkarem were unable to reach their homes after the end of their school day due to the military raid, forcing them to seek refuge in Thabet Thabet Governmental hospital for long hours.
The ongoing Israeli military presence, physical damage to schools, restricted access, and the psychological impact on students undermine the protection of basic human rights, violating children's right to education and hindering their ability to learn in a secure and stable environment.
Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian schools
Arab Al-Kaabneh Elementary School
Four Israeli settlers, from “Zohar Sabah Farm” outpost adjacent to Arab Al-Kaabneh Bedouin community, attacked the Arab Al-Kaabneh School, located northwest of Jericho in the central occupied West Bank, around 10 a.m. on September 16, using batons and sticks.
The settlers assaulted one of the school students, injuring his head and preventing others from leaving their classrooms, instilling fear among them. They then handed over the school principal and one of the students' parents to the Israeli military, who arrested them without any justification.
In a separate incident at the same school, a group of Palestinian children were heading to the Arab Al-Kaabneh School around 8 a.m. on September 9, when Israeli settlers from the same outpost opened fire on them, preventing them from reaching the school and forcing them to return to their homes.
The students' families worked with the school principal to arrange a safe route for the students to reach their schools, relying on the presence of international activists to help deter potential attacks from settlers.
Haris Secondary Boys School
Israeli forces entered the Palestinian town of Haris, northwest of Salfit in the northern occupied West Bank around 12 a.m., and raided the Haris Secondary Boys School around 8:30 a.m. on September 23. Four Israeli soldiers searched the school and terrorized students and staff by pointing weapons at them.
Out of the 400 students attending the school, 30 students, who had arrived earlier than the others, were present in the school during the military operation. The educational staff managed to evacuate 20 students outside the school, while 10 students, along with eight staff members, remained trapped inside.
The educational staff tried to inform the Israeli forces that there were children inside the school before the soldiers entered, but they were arrested and detained for several hours. The soldiers confiscated national symbols from the school, including a photograph of a killed child who had once been a student. The school principal and three teachers were arrested, handcuffed, and taken out of the school, where they were held for around three hours before being released.
Across the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence and military incursions into Palestinian communities impede Palestinian children’s right to education.
Schools have been closed in Gaza since October 7, and many are used as shelters for displaced Palestinians. 85 percent of educational facilities in the Gaza Strip are non-operational due to direct and deliberate targeting by Israeli forces, creating a significant challenge for resuming the educational process once this genocide ends, according to the Governmental Media Office.
The deliberate targeting of school shelters in Gaza constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law, as enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. This Convention prohibits attacks on civilian objects, including schools used to shelter civilians during armed conflict. Such actions also contravene the principle of distinction, which requires parties to a conflict to distinguish between civilian and military targets. Moreover, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court considers the intentional targeting of civilians or civilian objects as war crimes, punishable under international law.
Israel, a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), is legally obligated to uphold Palestinian children's access to education. Under Article 28(e) of the CRC, Israel is responsible to, “Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.” and Article 38(4) obliges signatories to protect the civilian population in accordance with international humanitarian law and take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by an armed conflict.