First Day of Palestinian New School Year, Israeli Forces Detain Teachers

Masafer Yatta, MINA – On the first day of the new school year, Israeli occupation forces on Monday briefly detained a number of teachers as they were heading to their school in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills, according to a local official.

Khaled Najjar, an official with the Ministry of Education in the town of Yatta, told WAFA that soldiers held several teachers for one hour at the entrance to Janba, one of the 19 hamlets making up Masafer Yatta, preventing them from reaching the school purportedly for being located in an area designated as a “firing zone” for military training.

The soldiers also held six journalists who were also going with the teachers to the same school to report on the start of the school year in the Masafer Yatta schools that are facing imminent Israeli demolition plans.

Najjar said students attending this school are a frequent target of army and settler attacks during the school year, requiring their parents to accompany them on their way to the school to protect them.

On Sunday, Israeli forces arrested a teacher on his way to a school in al-Fakheit hamlet and confiscated his vehicle.

Recently, Israel’s top court gave the army the green light to forcibly expel some 1,300 Palestinians living in 12 villages or hamlets in Masafer Yatta, which, if carried out, will be one of the largest expulsions carried out by the State of Israel in recent decades.

Located in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli administrative and military control, the area has been subjected to repeated Israeli violations by settlers and soldiers targeting their main source of living raising livestock.

It has been designated as a closed Israeli military zone for training since the 1980s and is accordingly referred to as Firing Zone 918.

Israeli violations against the area include demolition of animal barns, homes and residential structures. Issuance of construction permits by Israel to local Palestinians in the area is non-existent. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)