Israeli siege keeps nearly 80,000 Palestinian students out of school in West Bank's Hebron

Nearly 80,000 Palestinian students were unable to attend school last week as Israel’s siege of Hebron in the occupied West Bank forced 537 families from their homes, the General Union of Palestinian Teachers said Sunday. The closures disrupted education at 220 public, private and UN-run schools in the central Hebron education district, the union said in a statement carried by the Palestinian news agency WAFA. For displaced students, the disruption extends beyond missed lessons.

Many have lost access to their books and places to study, while teachers struggle to reach their schools, the union said. Israeli forces also detained 10 teachers from Jinba Basic Mixed School for several hours Sunday on Khallat al-Dabaa Road in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron. The troops held their vehicle, leaving students waiting for their teachers and disrupting the school day. The union condemned road closures and the detention of teachers and students as “an assault on the right to education and on people’s lives and dignity.”

It appealed to education unions worldwide to turn solidarity into pressure on governments to reopen routes to schools and protect students and teachers. It also urged Education International, a global federation of education unions, to lead diplomatic lobbying and send a delegation to Hebron and Masafer Yatta to document the impact. The Israeli operation entered its 10th consecutive day Sunday, having displaced or otherwise affected more than 3,300 Palestinians, particularly in the al-Jalda and Ain Deir Bahha areas.

Fifteen homes and other structures have been demolished. Israeli troops have sealed off Hebron and surrounding villages and seized homes and converted them into military posts, while demolitions and damage to infrastructure have disrupted daily life.