RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Bethlehem, 07 May 2023. Palestinians gather near the damage of Jibb Al-Deeb School demolished by Israeli authorities in the small Palestinian village of Bayt Ta’mar, to the east of Bethlehem in the south of the West Bank.

STORYLINE:

Israeli authorities demolished this early morning the donor-funded Jibb Al-Deeb School in the small Palestinian village of Bayt Ta’mar, to the east of Bethlehem in the south of the West Bank, six years after the same school was rebuilt after being demolished by the Israeli authorities in 2017.

Bassam Jabr, the Director of Education in Bethlehem, told WAFA that an Israeli army force accompanied by bulldozers stormed the village and cordoned off the area around the school, also called Challenge 5 School, before seizing the school’s assets and proceeding with the demolition.

He pointed out that the school houses about 60 students from the first to the fourth grade, and it was demolished in 2017 before it was rebuilt in the same year.

Hassan Brijieh, the director of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission in Bethlehem, said the Israeli High Court issued last March a ruling to demolish the school after it rejected a petition submitted by the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, and the St. Yves human rights organization to cancel the demolition of the school.

He added that the school was built on a land of 8 dunums donated by local Palestinian clans, with proper legal documents proving the ownership of the land.

Confrontations erupted between the Israeli army and local residents following the demolition of the school, during which Israeli soldiers fired teargas canisters at residents, causing many of them to suffocate from gas inhalation.

Footage by / APAwire