BETHLEHEM, A number of schoolchildren Thursday morning suffocated as Israeli forces attacked them in Tuqu‘ town, south of Bethlehem, according to a local activist.
Mustapha al-Badan said that Israeli soldiers the vicinity of Tuqu‘ Secondary Boys School in the southern West Bank town, and fired volleys of tear gas canisters towards the students, causing a number to suffocate.
A week ago, a seven-year-old Palestinian boy died on Thursday after falling from a significant height while running away from Israeli soldiers in the village of Tuqu in Bethlehem, health officials said.
Rayyan Yaser Suleiman was coming home from school with other pupils in the village when troops gave chase, and he died on the spot from fear, his father Yasser said.
A medical official who inspected the boy’s body told Reuters that it bore no sign of physical trauma and that the death appeared consistent with heart failure.
Attacks on education by Israeli military forces and Israeli settlers in the Palestine constitute grave violations of children’s rights to education and development. These attacks are particularly prevalent in the most vulnerable areas of the West Bank – Area C, H2 and Jerusalem.
Source: Palestine News & Info Agency