[Note: According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are illegal.  Most settlement outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law.]

On Thursday, 15 April 2010, an Israeli settler drove his vehicle into a group of Palestinian schoolchildren as they walked to school in At-Tuwani.  The children, aged from six-years-old to fifteen-years-old, were able to leap out of the way and none were hurt.

The children from the villages of Tuba and Maghayer al Abeed require a military escort to and from school in At Tuwani because of repeated attacks by Israeli settlers from Ma’on settlement and Havat Ma’on outpost.  However, the Israeli soldiers do little to protect the children when settlers approach them.  Members of CPT and Operation Dove monitor the escort and have repeatedly asked the soldiers to walk with the children, but the soldiers rarely do so.

 On Thursday, no soldiers were walking with the children.  The Israeli settler drove his vehicle out of Ma'on outpost and into the middle of the group as they were walking.  The soldiers remained in their jeep and drove behind the group of children, allowing the settler to drive down the road in the midst of the children.  The settlers proceeded to yell at the children and the CPTers who were videotaping the incident, then drove out of the area.  The soldiers made no effort to stop the vehicle or speak with the driver or passengers.  When the CPTers attempted to speak with the soldiers, they refused to stop their jeep.

 CPTers were able to identify one of the settlers as someone who has been involved in other incidents of harassment against Palestinians and CPTers.

 For a complete report on the school escort in 2008-2009, including maps, photographs and interviews with the children, please see The Closed Road to Education:Palestinian Students suffer under violent settlement expansion.