Dozens of Palestinian children have been unable to go to school in the West Bank this week because of barbed wire erected by Jewish settlers across the path they normally use.
Dozens of children tried on Monday to get to school in the small village of Umm al-Khair near the city of Hebron for the first time since the war with Iran began. They found their way blocked by barbed wire, which villagers said had been placed there by Israelis from the nearby Carmel settlement.
Khalil Hathaleen, head of the Umm al-Khair village council, said the barbed wire prevented children from the outskirts of the village from taking their usual path through a valley to the school in the village center.
Otherwise, he said, the children would have to walk along a road which he described as dangerous. "We insist on using the main path that our children have always taken," he said.
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem claimed that the barbed wire was part of a coordinated campaign by settlers to intimidate Palestinians and drive them from their land in the West Bank.
Classes had been suspended at the start of the Iran war, during which debris from intercepted Iranian missiles had at times fallen on the West Bank.
IDF claims fence was erected after repeated attempted incursions into Carmel
In a statement, the Israeli military said on Monday that soldiers had used "riot dispersal means" against several adult Palestinians who it said had tried to reach the security perimeter of the Carmel settlement. The military acknowledged that children were present but said they were not targeted.
The Yesha Council told Reuters that "a barrier was put in place to protect the residents of Carmel, in coordination with Israeli security authorities" after repeated attempted incursions into Carmel. It said there were other routes that could be used.
Local Palestinians said they have filed a complaint through an Israeli-Palestinian office about the barbed wire fence, which stands near Israeli flags, but that it had not been removed.