Israeli settlers block Palestinian children from attending school in West Bank
7th May 2026
Students, teachers, and families stage daily peaceful sit-ins at site of fence near Umm al-Khair village
AT LEAST 55 Palestinian children have been prevented from attending school in the occupied West Bank after Israeli settlers erected a barbed-wire fence, blocking the route to their classrooms.
Students, teachers, and local families in Umm al-Khair, a small village in the region of Masafer Yatta, have staged daily peaceful sit-ins at the site of the fence, turning the area beside it into an informal outdoor classroom as they protest the closure.
Some of the children were reportedly exposed to teargas during the demonstrations, according to the West Bank Education Cluster.
“We were sitting and they threw a grenade [teargas canister] at us. I got scared and started screaming and ran away,” said 12 year-old Sarah al-Hathaleen.
“I started crying. A woman hugged me and stayed with me. We were very scared.”
Bassam Jabr, the director of education for the Masafer Yatta area, confirmed the children were staging a sit-in at the time of the incident.
“Settlers are trying to tighten the noose on us in every way. One of these methods is cutting off the road for school students and expanding the settlement,” Jabr said of settlers from the nearby Carmel settlement, whose residents erected the fence.
“Sadly, there are no solutions. We will continue this sit-in today and tomorrow, until we find a solution so the students can return to their schools.”
The Israeli military said troops had been dispatched to the area and that they dispersed an “unusual gathering”, but did not specify whether its soldiers had fired teargas at the children.
Agence France-Presse footage meanwhile showed teargas canisters being fired, with children screaming and fleeing.
School children in the village of Umm al-Khair had been due back in class for the first time in 40 days, after lessons were suspended as a result of the Israeli-US attack on Iran on 28 February. But with the road still blocked, children in the village have now been unable to attend school for nearly two months.
The Masafer Yatta community’s struggle against aggressive Israeli settlers and the IDF was featured in the 2024 Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, but international attention has done little to halt violence or land seizures in the area.
The erection of the fence happened amid growing concerns over intensified Israeli settlement expansion and increasing settler attacks across the occupied West Bank. Israeli settlements and outposts built on occupied Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law.
The NGO Save the Children said it works in Umm al-Khair directly and through local partner organisations.
Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, said the blockade represented “a worrying attack on children’s right to education.”
“The Israeli authorities and settlers are ending any sense of safety that previously existed for the three million Palestinians currently living in the West Bank,” he said.
“No child should be denied the right to education [or be] too scared to walk to school or be faced with violence while travelling to school.”
He said students and teachers across the occupied Palestinian territory had been killed, wounded, arrested, and detained, while children in Gaza were now in their third year without regular schooling.
“We’re at risk of seeing a lost generation emerge,” he added. “They need to get back to the classroom not only for their own individual development, but for the future of Palestinian society.”
The situation for children in the West Bank became more difficult in 2026, aid groups say, citing intensified military operations, growing movement restrictions, and increased settler violence. Children have reported harassment and attacks while travelling to school.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 1,100 Palestinians, including more than 230 children, have been killed in the West Bank since October 7 2023.
