Israeli settlers verbally assaulted Mayor of Hebron Taysir Abu Sneina and physically blocked him from accessing a number of schools in Hebron’s Old City in the southern occupied West Bank on Wednesday morning, as Israeli soldiers looked on and eventually forced the mayor to leave the area.
Abu Sneina was making the rounds, visiting schools in the city to inaugurate the beginning of the school year.
He told Ma’an that an “extremist Israeli settler called Ofer swore at me using repulsive words and threatened to kill me.”
320 palestinian shcool students didnt go to their schools today because they're held in israeli occupation jails!#FreePalestinianDetainees pic.twitter.com/flNw7I8RgU
— eman qasim (@EmanQasim) August 23, 2017
The same settler “gave instructions” to Israeli soldiers, demanding that they prevent the mayor from accessing the Old City and to escort him away at gunpoint.
Located in the center of Hebron – one of the largest cities in the occupied West Bank – the Old City is home to 6,500 Palestinians and some 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers, according to a 2016 report by legal rights NGO BADIL.
Palestinian residents of the Old City face a large Israeli military presence on a daily basis, with at least 32 permanent and partial checkpoints set up at the entrances of many streets.
Israel Demolishes 3 Palestinian Schools in West Bank Days Before Reopening – Sputnik International https://t.co/pB0nC8fhml
— Aoude (@AoudeA) August 23, 2017
Meanwhile, approximately 1.25 million schoolchildren started the new school year in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip after the summer holiday ended.
(Maan, PC, Social Media)
