Defiant West Bank students turn street into classroom after Israeli roadblock

Dozens of Palestinian students in a southern West Bank village 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 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 Feb. 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, 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 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.

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.

An Israeli system

That night, an Israeli occupier and his friends 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.

It was the first day after a 40-day interruption, he said.

“What is happening is only a small part of a series of attacks residents endure every day, part of Israeli pressure tactics to force residents to leave,” he said.

Frequent water and electricity outages add to their misery, said Hathaleen.

“This Israeli harassment is to intimidate us … They even fired tear gas at children. What have they done to deserve this?” he said.

“But we will not leave our land, we have no choice but to stay.”

‘We studied in the street'

That morning, Sarah woke up and got dressed for school. But she found the road to school blocked.

“There were Israeli occupiers there. They closed the road, and we could not go to school,” the sixth-grader told Anadolu.

"We staged a sit-in at the blocked road, but they (Israeli army) threw a bomb at us, so we sat down and studied on the street.”

The children were excited, she said, to return to school after 40 days of closure due the war. “But we found the road blocked.”

“Like children in the rest of the world, we want to learn and live in peace,” she said.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul