Nearly 80,000 Palestinian students missed school last week as an Israeli military operation entered its tenth consecutive day in Hebron, while military restrictions disrupted classes, forced hundreds of families from their homes, and closed hundreds of schools across the central Hebron education district.
The ten-day military operation in Hebron followed an attack on Oct. 23 in which two soldiers were killed, according to regional reporting. By Monday, Israeli troops had withdrawn from the occupied city, but the weeklong siege had already shuttered 220 public, private, and United Nations-run educational institutions within the central Hebron education district.
The General Union of Palestinian Teachers Reports School Closures and Infrastructure Damage
The General Union of Palestinian Teachers stated that the restrictions disrupted learning for approximately 80,000 students and forced 537 families into displacement. Troops sealed off the city and surrounding villages, seizing houses in neighborhoods like Al-Jalda and Ain Deir Bahha to convert them into military posts and observation points.
Settlers block Palestinian pupils' path to West Bank school with barbed wire https://t.co/07aRNBiPjA https://t.co/07aRNBiPjA
— https://x.com/Reuters/status/2044948978077204707
According to municipal announcements, fifteen homes and structures were completely demolished alongside the closure of 327 commercial shops. Direct daily economic losses from the assault exceeded 12 million shekels, or approximately $3.8 million, while infrastructure damage reached over 6 million shekels, roughly $1.9 million. Health and environmental sector losses were tallied at around 500,000 shekels, or $160,000.
In the Central Hebron Directorate, the ongoing aggression caused the suspension of studies in 220 schools, ranging from public and private institutions to facilities affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Alexandra Saieh, head of global strategic influencing and policy at Save the Children International, cited the defunding of the UN Relief and Works Agency, the Palestinian Authority’s financial crisis, settler violence, and Israeli-imposed restrictions on movement as overlapping barriers preventing children from consistently attending school. Saieh stated that children in the West Bank face unprecedented obstacles that threaten an entire generation’s right to learn and grow with dignity.
Teacher Detentions and Roadblocks Disrupt Masafer Yatta Classrooms
Educational disruptions extended directly into staffing and daily transit. On Sunday, Israeli forces detained 10 teachers from Jinba Co-educational Basic School for several hours on the Khirbet Khillet al-Dabaa road in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron. Soldiers seized their vehicle and transferred it to a military camp, leaving students waiting indefinitely for instruction to begin.
While the Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced that classes resumed in most areas, 15 schools in al-Jalda and Ain Deir Baha remained affected, leaving roughly 2,400 students without in-person learning. Alexandra Saieh, head of global strategic influencing and policy at Save the Children International, told regional outlets that the restrictions represent a systematic dismantling of Palestinian education.
Al-Mughayyir Fortifies Secondary School Gates Amid Rising Settler Violence
Farther north, parents in al-Mughayyir faced severe security hurdles after five teenage students were killed during the previous academic year, including one fatality at school gates. Over the summer break, teachers and parents built metal fences and installed a sturdy metal gate at the public secondary school to protect arriving students.
Ameen Abu Alia, the 54-year-old mayor of the town, noted that the community has watched the number of settler outposts multiply around the town over the last three years. In early September, two teenagers—19-year-old Omar al-Nassan and 16-year-old Khalil Abu Alia—were killed by settlers and Israeli soldiers as the pair tried to stop settlers from taking their sheep. Reporting from the area noted that armed settlers regularly raid the village, assaulting residents, attacking homes, and seizing livestock.
Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, reported that settlers carried out more than 170 attacks since the olive harvest began in late September. Villagers reported that regular settler incursions closed roads, harassed residents grazing livestock, and provoked confrontations.
Calls for International Trade Union Action and Human Rights Missions
In response to the mounting blockages, the General Union of Palestinian Teachers issued urgent appeals for international trade union intervention. The organization urged Education International to dispatch a delegation to Hebron and Masafer Yatta to document field conditions, listen to affected testimonies, and lobby diplomatic missions.
The union characterized the ongoing movement restrictions, closures, and staff detentions plainly.
an assault on the right to education and on people’s lives and dignity.