On Tuesday, half of the students at an elementary school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank did not attend classes, a day after the school was attacked by Jewish settlers wielding wooden bats. This surge in violence has coincided with the escalation of the Gaza war. Palestinian officials reported that seven people were injured in the attack. Such incidents have strained the patience of Israel's allies, including the United States, which has urged restraint in the West Bank as the death toll in Gaza continues to rise and the conflict spreads across the Middle East.
A video filmed by Israeli activists and shared on social media captured a group of young men assaulting people in the yard of Al Ka'abneh school in a Bedouin area near Jericho on Monday. Ahmed Nasser, an official at the Palestinian Ministry of Education, stated, "Half of the students today did not come to school because of the state of fear and terror they experienced yesterday because of the settlers' attack on the school."
Even before the outbreak of the Gaza war, violence against Palestinian villages had been increasing, fueled by unchecked settlement building across the West Bank. Since October 7, when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel, triggering the Gaza conflict, attacks by Israeli settlers have escalated. According to figures from the UN humanitarian agency OCHA last month, such attacks were occurring at a rate of around four per day.
Student Aya Mlehat recounted, "We were studying as usual in class, then they started saying that settlers attacked the schools, I was able to gather my siblings so that nothing happens to them. I was able to gather them in a classroom, and the settlers started banging on the class trying to open it against our will." Palestinians and rights groups frequently accuse Israeli forces of standing by during these attacks, sometimes even participating. Legal action against violent settlers is uncommon.
The Israeli military stated that settlers arrived after a report of an Israeli civilian being injured in a clash with Palestinians. "A confrontation was instigated at the scene, during which a number of Palestinians were injured," the military said in a statement. Soldiers and police responded to the confrontation, detaining several suspects in the area.
Countries including the United States have started imposing sanctions on individuals and face pressure to do more to curb the expansion of settlements on land the Palestinians envision as the core of a future independent state, a key part of the two-state solution favored by Western countries. Meanwhile, the West Bank has seen almost daily sweeps by Israeli forces, resulting in thousands of arrests and regular gunbattles between security forces and Palestinian fighters.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, more than 703 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including both fighters and unarmed civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities. In the same period, about 40 Israeli troops and civilians have been killed in attacks by Palestinians or in clashes with fighters, according to figures from Israel's domestic security agency. Most countries consider Jewish settlements built on land Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war to be illegal, and their expansion has been a contentious issue between Israel, the Palestinians, and the international community for decades. Israel cites biblical, historical, and political ties to the area.
