Israeli forces have demolished the foundations of a new school in the southern occupied West Bank, according to Rateb Jabour, a member of the National and Popular Committee Resisting the Wall and Settlements.

Jabour told WAFA Naws Agency that Israeli soldiers stormed Yatta area, in the southern occupied West Bank province of al-Khalil, and began to demolish the foundation of the building.

The school was being built between Yatta and Bani Naim, near the illegal Jewish Israeli settlement of Beni Hefer.

According to Jabour, no prior notice of demolition was given to the school administration.

The school was intended to serve children who live in remote and isolated villages and often have to travel long distances to reach their schools in nearby towns. 

As journalist and author Ramzy Baroud commented, “Israel’s strategy in destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian schooling system is a brutal logic that has guided the Israeli government strategy regarding Palestinian education for 70 years.”

“It is a war that cannot be discussed or understood outside the larger war on Palestinian identity, freedom, and, in fact, the very existence of the Palestinian people”, Baroud added.