Occupied West Bank (QNN)- Israeli settlers used bulldozers overnight to demolish Al-Maleh School and several nearby homes in the northern Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank, guarded by Israeli military firces.
Groups of Israelis stormed Al-Maleh Bedouin community and carried out the demolition. Mehdi Daraghmeh, head of Al-Maleh village council, said the Israelis destroyed the school and surrounding residences after entering the area by force.
Daraghmeh stressed that ongoing settler violence had already forced many Palestinian families to leave the area in previous months, creating a pattern of displacement that continues to intensify.
Azmi Balawneh, Director of Education in Tubas, confirmed that Israelis “completely erased Al-Maleh School.” He said they also took control of an older building that belonged to the school, which had served as administrative offices and a kindergarten. The settlers raised Israeli flags over the seized structure.
Balawneh explained that the school once served around 70 children from nearby Bedouin communities. However, repeated attacks and harassment caused a sharp decline in attendance, reducing the number of students to just 16. Settler assaults targeted both students and teachers, including physical attacks and intimidation, which forced the school to shut down entirely earlier in 2026, before its final demolition.
He added that the school had faced continuous Israeli violations over the past two years. These included restrictions, harassment, and repeated attacks that gradually disrupted its operations. The school had provided education to several Bedouin communities for nearly seven years before it ceased functioning.
Balawneh warned that the demolition reflects broader efforts to control the area and empty it of its native people, particularly in strategic areas of the Jordan Valley.
The attack comes amid a wider escalation targeting the education sector in the occupied West Bank. On Sunday, Israeli forces suppressed a protest organized by schoolchildren in the village of Umm al-Khair, in the Masafer Yatta area south of occupied Hebron.
The protest aimed to highlight the denial of education for 51 students, after Israelis blocked their access to school for seven consecutive days.
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A recent monthly report by the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission documented 497 settler attacks against Palestinians, their property, and livelihoods across the West Bank in March alone. These attacks resulted in the killing of nine Palestinians.
Violence has surged across the West Bank since October 2023. According to official data, at least 1,150 Palestinians have been killed, around 11,750 injured, and nearly 22,000 kidnapped during this period.
