Israeli settlers target Palestinian school, injuring several in West Bank

Illegal Israeli settlers have attacked a Palestinian school in the Mu'arrajat area, northwest of the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, according to a local activist.

Students and teachers were assaulted by illegal settlers during the attack on the Arab al-Ka'abneh Primary School on Monday, injuring several people and besieging the school premises, Hassan Mleihat of the non-governmental Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights said in a statement.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said three people were injured and treated by its medics after the attack.

The Palestinian Education Ministry denounced the settler attack, accusing the Israeli army and settlers of disrupting education and terrorising Palestinian children.

It called the attack a “recurring violation that reveals the ugly face of the Israeli occupation and its disregard for children's rights."

Israel's intensified attacks on the West Bank

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank amid Israel’s devastating military offensive on Gaza, which has killed more than 41,200 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

At least 704 people, including 159 children, have since been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation followed a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19, which declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.