WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Zionist troops opened fire at two Palestinian schools in the town of Burqa in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Wafa has reported. Students and staff were evacuated immediately following the Israeli attacks.
According to Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors the occupying regime’s settlement activities in the Nablus district, the troops shot live bullets, tear gas and concussion bombs inside the schools. Dozens of students and staff suffered the after-effects of inhaling the gas.
Daghlas added that this was the second day in a row that the schools have been attacked by Zionist troops. On Monday, they also fired tear gas at the schools, causing panic among students and staff.
The official pointed out that Palestinian schools are targeted frequently by the regime army. Gunfire towards the schools is common, as is the obstruction of students’ access and intimidating deployment of heavy troop concentrations in the surrounding area.
The Zionist regime has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Human rights abuses against the Palestinians and breaches of international law are daily occurrences.
More than 600,000 Zionists live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Al-Quds. All of the regime’s settlements are illegal under international law, which the apartheid regime treats with contempt.
Meanwhile in another development, Arab48.com has reported the Zionist regime verbally and physically tortures Palestinian children in detention and during their interrogation.
According to the lawyer of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Prisoners’ and Freed Prisoners’ Commission, Heba Aghbariyeh, most of the children in question were subjected to such torture.
Aghbariyeh cited evidence from Majdi Jumaa, 17, from Qafr Qaddum in Qalqilia, who was arrested at 3am while at home. During his detention, he said that he was blindfolded and handcuffed, and Zionist troops beat him on his head, shoulders and other parts of his body. After being hit by the butts of the soldiers’ guns, he fell to the stony ground. The beating continued in the army jeep taking him to Megiddo Prison, and his head was hit against the side of the vehicle.
Hussein Obeid, also 17, from Al-Quds, was detained while at his home by a large contingent of Zionist occupation forces, police and espionage services at 5am. He told the lawyer that he was beaten while he was still in bed, before being blindfolded and handcuffed.
Obeid was taken to an interrogation center in Al-Quds. During the interrogation, the lawyer reported, he was tortured and the interrogators beat him several times on his head, causing bruises and other injuries.
The Prisoners’ and Freed Prisoners’ Commission condemned the Zionist regime’s violence against Palestinian prisoners, especially children. It called upon the international community and human rights groups to put pressure on the regime to stop this violence and torture.