Palestinian children return to school under threat of Israel demolition

Farah, Mohammed and Jawad are getting ready for the new school year in Masafer Yatta in the southern occupied West Bank.The children, aged 17, 8, and 7 respectively, attend Shaab al-Butum school in a village with the same name. But the building they’ll return to will be missing two administrative rooms and a storage room after Israeli forces demolished them on August 4.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Israel-Hamas truce failure ‘point of no return’, envoy warnslist 2 of 3UNRWA chief condemns Israeli seizure of East Jerusalem training centrelist 3 of 3Why a Christian group is suing the Dutch government for West Bank trade banend of listAccording to the United Nations, Israel justified the demolitions by saying that the structures were constructed without Israeli-issued building permits. These are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain in the Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is under Israeli administrative and military control.The rest of the school isn’t safe either – it has also been threatened with demolition, with a court case scheduled for September 15.The children’s return to education is now uncertain, as they worry about losing the village’s only sch...