NABLUS, Sunday, April 14, 2019 (WAFA) – Dozens of students suffered suffocation on Sunday after Israeli soldiers fired teargas canisters into the yard of a school in Urif village, to south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to a local source.

Mazen Shehadeh, head of the village council of Urif, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers fired tens of teargas canisters into the yard of a school, causing many cases of suffocation among the students and teachers.

Most of the students who suffered suffocation were treated at the scene while only one of them was moved to hospital for medical treatment, he added.

This came only one day after extremist Jewish settlers from the neighboring illegal settlement of Yitzhar attacked the village of partially destroyed two vehicles.

In 2018 alone, the UN documented 111 Israeli attacks on education in the West Bank affecting more than 19,000 children.

“Incidents of interference in schools by Israeli forces” include “threats of demolition, clashes on the way to school between students and security forces, teachers stopped at checkpoints, and the violent actions of Israeli forces and settlers on some occasions,” according to a statement by United Nations officials.

The bulk of the 111 “interferences to education” in the West Bank documented by the UN in 2018 took place in the last four months of the year.

“More than half of the verified incidents involved live ammunition, tear gas and stun grenades fired into or near schools by Israeli forces, impacting the delivery of education or injuring students,” according to the UN officials.

M.N