CPTnet
14 November 2006

AT-TUWANI: Israeli military again fails to provide timely escort for
Palestinian school children

On 12 November 2006, for the second day in a row, the Israeli military
failed to provide timely escort for the Palestinian children of Tuba and
Magaer Al-Abeed. In 2004, the Israeli Knesset (parliament) ordered the
military to accompany the children to and from school each day to keep them
safe from Israeli settlers.

For two mornings last week, the soldiers claimed they could not find the
children waiting at the assigned meeting point. This location has not
changed in the two years since the military escort began. On the morning of
12 November, after multiple phone calls from internationals in the area to
the Hebron District Coordinator Office, the soldiers arrived ninety minutes
late, complaining that the orders they received were unclear.

The children waited the entire time by themselves at the same place where
settlers attacked them the previous afternoon. After the attack yesterday,
a commanding officer spoke with a village leader, and promised that the
soldiers would pick the children up in the village of Tuba the following
morning.