Israeli school assault wounds dozens of Palestinians in West Bank raid

As students sat in classrooms and roamed the campus, Israel’s army opened fire on a well-known university in the occupied West Bank, leaving scores of people injured.

As frantic students and staff watched in shock on Tuesday, Israeli soldiers smashed open the university’s gates.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society claims that three of the injured were shot in the legs. Three people were struck by flying shrapnel, and five others were inhaled with tear gas.

According to the official Wafa news agency, Birzeit University said the attack “constitutes a flagrant and deliberate violation of the sanctity of universities and educational institutions.”

The campus’s “storming in broad daylight and turning it into a military zone” is the result of a “synthetic policy” intended to intimidate students, undermine their right to education, and target Palestinian consciousness.

11 people were being treated at the Istishari Arab Hospital in Ramallah, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The Israeli raid came after a student event held in solidarity with thousands of imprisoned Palestinians in Israeli custody, and it also coincided with a screening of the movie “Hind Rajab,” a girl who was shot dead by soldiers in Gaza at the age of six.

Shortly before the screening, Israeli forces stormed the campus. The Israeli army claimed that it attacked a university “gathering in support of terrorism.”

“Started shooting,”

According to a report from Birzeit University, Nida Ibrahim of Al Jazeera reported that 11 people had been taken to hospitals as a result of the attack.

It was unheard of. People claim to have never witnessed anything comparable. We’re discussing an Israeli raid that occurred inside the university where students are enrolling for the first time, and Ibrahim said that the Israeli forces started firing live ammunition rather than tear gas.

They rely on education to have jobs, live a life, and support their families because they are under occupation and have so many choices. However, many students are now concerned about this. Israeli assaults are not tolerated anywhere.

The violent assault was condemned by Palestine’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education, who claimed that the attack violated all international standards and conventions governing educational facilities.

The ministry called on the International Association of Universities, the Association of Arab Universities, and international human rights organizations to condemn the Israeli shooting and claim that it would not “break the will of Palestinian students or staff.”

The nail in the coffin, then.

Israel’s final step toward building a contentious settlement project close to East Jerusalem, which would effectively divide the occupied West Bank into two, was completed on Tuesday, according to a government tender.

The E1 project’s construction can begin with a tender seeking developer bids. The tender was first reported by Peace Now, an anti-settlement monitoring organization. Initial work could start in the month, according to Yanji Mizrahi, the group’s settlement watch division.

E1, an open parcel of land east of Jerusalem, has been subject to ongoing planning for more than 20 years, but US pressure from previous administrations led to its freezing.

The West Bank’s construction of Israeli settlements is viewed by the international community as being against international law and a barrier to peace.

Because it extends far beyond Jerusalem and into the occupied West Bank, the E1 project is particularly contentious. It would, according to critics, prevent the territory from becoming a single Palestinian state.

Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right politician who controls settlement policy in Israel, has long advocated for the implementation of the plan.

When Israel gave final approval to the plan in August, Smotrich claimed that “the Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions.” Every settlement, every neighborhood, and every housing unit are just another example of how dangerous this idea is.

Source: Aljazeera