Israel Fires Tear Gas at Children

The BBC reported that the Israeli military fired tear gas at Palestinian children who were staging a sit-in at Umm al-Khair, a village in the southern West Bank region of Masafer Yatta on Monday.  The students had gathered near a barbed wire fence erected by illegal Israeli settlers, which blocked access to the school.

According to witnesses, children and adults were holding a sit-in outdoors to demand access when troops fired the tear gas.  “We were sitting and they threw a grenade [teargas canister] at us. I got scared and started screaming and ran away,” said 12-year-old Sarah al-Hathaleen.

Bassam Jabr, the director of education for Masafer Yatta, confirmed the students were staging a sit-in at the time of the incident. “Settlers are trying to tighten the noose on us in every way. One of these methods is cutting off the road for school students and expanding the settlement,” according to Jabr.

The Fourth Geneva Convention requires the illegal Israeli occupation to facilitate the proper working of educational institutions for Palestinian children in the West Bank. Blocking access to schools and firing tear gas at children violates international law and basic decency.

The Israeli regime wants to make life as hard as possible for the indigenous population of Palestine.  Ultimately, the regime wants to expel non-Jews from the West Bank as part of their plan to create a “Greater Israel”.