Children in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Khair (a small Palestinian community in Area C of the occupied West Bank, under full Israeli military control) have been unable to reach their school for more than 50 days after settlers erected a barbed wire fence overnight across the established pedestrian route, with Israeli soldiers subsequently refusing to remove the unauthorised barrier. On Sunday, dozens of students, parents, and teachers marched to the fence in a protest dubbed the 'Umm al-Khair Freedom School,' where children sang songs and banged drums while soldiers watched from the other side; when children previously attempted to go around the fence, soldiers fired tear gas and sound grenades at children as young as five. The community has rejected an Israeli-offered alternative route of roughly three kilometres, arguing it passes through settler outposts where a Palestinian man was fatally shot last summer and where a five-year-old girl was recently struck by a settler's vehicle, leaving 55 students without meaningful access to education.