Israeli forces raze Palestinian land, deprive children from school in Nablus

Israeli forces on Wednesday levelled a large patch of Palestinian land to the south of the West Bank city of Nablus while preventing children from going to school nearby.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, said that Israeli bulldozers razed 30,000 square metres of land belonging to the villagers of Qusra, Jurish and Aqraba.

He said he is concerned that this was intended as a precursor to the construction of a new settlement outpost in the area.

Israeli forces on Wednesday also obstructed students’ access to their school in the village of al-Lubban Ash-Sharqiya, south of Nablus.

Israeli soldiers deliberately prevented the students from walking on the Nablus-Ramallah Road to reach their school on time, forcing them to go through rough terrain to reach it, according to the Palestinian Authority's news agency Wafa.

They also detained a 17-year-old student from the nearby village of Ammuriya for over two hours before releasing him.

Israel has occupied the West Bank illegally since 1967, and commits various abuses against Palestinian civilians, human rights groups say.

More than 600,000 Jewish Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in constructions considered illegal under international law.