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Israeli Forces Destroy Two More Palestinian Schools
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Palestinian children run into a building as they hear Israeli helicopters flying overhead |
RAMALLAH, March 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Despite international calls for an end to violence, Israeli occupation forces destroyed two more schools in Al Beera City Saturday.
Musa Jumhoor, director of the Ramallah education zone, said the entire schools, including furniture, labs and classrooms, were destroyed, reported the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA).
He added that even the offices of the education zone were subject to Israeli gunfire.
Scenes of chaos and ruin met the 1400 students of the Ramallah Secondary school for boys and the Al Beera New Secondary School for Boys, upon their arrival Saturday morning.
The devastation of the schools caused losses of up to thousands of shekels, said Jumhoor, adding that losses reached into other areas such as telephone and electricity networks, stolen history books, and vandalizing photographs of the Intifada's martyrs with obscene phrases on the school walls.
However, he added, the students attended their classes and participated in repairing some of the damage the occupation forces had done. "The school day will continue as normal," he said adding, "there will be an academic program installed to help the students make up for the days they lost due to the Israeli occupation."
This was not the first attack on Palestinian schools. On March 5, the Jewish fundamentalist organization, "Revenge of the Children", claimed responsibility for explosives detonated within a Palestinian Arabic primary school in Sour Baher, injuring ten children and a teacher.
The March 5 attack was the first on Palestinian schools since the Intifada began. Arab parents and children within Palestine expressed fears of other vindictive moves by Jewish fundamentalist organizations in reaction to recent Palestinian retaliations.
The following day, March 6, Israeli F16 fighter planes bombed Al Nour Center for Disabled and Handicapped Children in the Gaza Strip.
The attack resulted in grave losses for the Center and minor ones for the neighboring primary school. Two more schools were hit in Khan Younis on the same day.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education had previously called upon the United Nations (U.N.), human rights organizations, and the international community to interfere in the massacres taking place within the Palestinian schools.
The Ministry had issued a statement on March 5 after rejecting Israel's apology for killing Palestinian children, indicating that these killings were taking place on a daily basis.
The Ministry added that out of the 435 children killed since the Intifada started, 150 were students killed in their schools. One hundred and forty eight schools had also been hit and suffered grave losses. Also one of the Ministry's headquarters had been attacked.
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