DaysofPal- Parents and students held a sit-in on Sunday at the UNRWA Jerusalem Girls’ School in the town of Silwan, south of occupied Jerusalem, to protest the closure of the school by the Israeli occupation authorities.
Participants in the sit-in raised slogans, including “Our children have the right to learn. Open the school doors.” “There is no alternative place for our children,” “The Jerusalem Girls’ School must be open,” and “Our right to education.”
Last Thursday, Israeli occupation forces raided UNRWA schools in Jerusalem, forcing students, teaching staff, and administrative staff to evacuate immediately, as the decision to close six UNRWA schools went into effect.
Earlier, UNRWA confirmed that the occupation authorities were preventing 550 students from reaching their schools in occupied East Jerusalem.
UNRWA said in a post on its official Facebook page on Saturday that Israeli occupation forces stormed three of the agency’s schools in the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem last Thursday, intending to enforce illegal closure orders issued a month earlier, forcing more than 550 girls and boys to leave their schools.
UNRWA added that it was subsequently forced to evacuate all children across the six schools it runs in East Jerusalem, calling the incident a “blatant attack on children’s right to education.”
On April 8, Israeli occupation forces handed several UNRWA schools in Shuafat refugee camp, Sur Baher, Silwan, and Wadi al-Joz orders prohibiting anyone from entering the school premises after May 8, 2025, including principals, teachers, staff, and parents.
Parents were urged to register their children in schools the Israeli municipality runs. In October 2024, the Israeli Knesset passed a law banning the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Israel.
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