Israeli forces fired teargas at Palestinian schoolchildren who were holding an open-air sit-in protest in the occupied West Bank after settlers blocked access to their school, witnesses and local officials confirmed. The incident occurred in Umm al-Khair, a small village in the Masafer Yatta region of the southern West Bank — an area known as a flashpoint for settler violence and Palestinian home demolitions. The Israeli military acknowledged it had "dispersed an unusual gathering" in the area but did not confirm whether teargas had been deployed against the children, and said no injuries were reported.
The confrontation took place on Monday, the first day of school for the children in more than 40 days, after lessons had been suspended following an Israeli-US military strike on Iran on 28 February. Children and some local adults had gathered near a barbed wire fence erected by residents of the nearby Carmel settlement, which blocked the road leading to the school. Unable to reach their classrooms, the group sat down to hold an open-air lesson in protest when troops fired teargas canisters into the crowd, scattering children in panic. "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. Her 11-year-old brother Rashid added: "Last night we were excited for school today. The Israelis came and closed the road with barbed wire — we want to be back in school."
Bassam Jabr, director of education for the Masafer Yatta area, confirmed the children were staging the sit-in at the time of the incident and said settlers were "trying to tighten the noose on us in every way," including by blocking school access and expanding settlement infrastructure. He said the sit-in would continue until a solution allowing students to reach their school was found. Video footage from Agence France-Presse showed teargas canisters being fired, with children screaming and fleeing the area.
The episode highlights the deepening pressures on Palestinian civilian life in the West Bank, where settler violence has surged since the outbreak of the Iran war. More than 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank — excluding East Jerusalem — in settlements widely considered illegal under international law, among a Palestinian population of approximately three million. Israel has occupied the territory since the 1967 war. Umm al-Khair has been at the centre of tensions before: it was there that Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen was killed by a settler in August 2025. For many in the region, the sight of teargas being fired at children on their first day back at school underscores the extent to which the conflict is shaping even the most basic aspects of daily life.