Israel closes 6 UN schools in annexed east Jerusalem

JERUSALEM

Israel permanently closed six U.N. schools in annexed east Jerusalem yesterday, forcing Palestinian students to leave early and throwing the education of more than 800 others into question.

Last month, heavily armed Israeli police and Education Ministry officials ordered six schools in east Jerusalem to close within 30 days, which ended on May 7. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, runs the six schools.

The closure orders come after Israel banned UNRWA from operating on its soil earlier this year.

The Israeli Education Ministry said that it will place the students into other Jerusalem schools. But parents, teachers and administrators caution that closing the main schools in east Jerusalem will force their children to go through crowded and dangerous checkpoints daily and some do not have the correct permits to pass through.

In a previous statement, the ministry said it was closing the schools because they were operating without a license.

In a visit to one of the schools, reporters witnessed Israeli police throw tear gas into the schoolyard as a group of boys played outside.

Children sprinted away from the gas, coughing, drooling and covering their eyes. Some stripped off their clothes while others donned disposable masks.

Israeli police said the incursion into the Shuafat refugee camp came in response to stone-throwing but denied directly targeting the school.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in Israel continues to deteriorate, as one of the leading aid organizations, World Central Kitchen (WCK), has announced the suspension of its operations.

WCK was serving 133,000 meals per day and baking 80,000 loaves of bread over the past weeks, but said it was forced to suspend operations since there is almost no food left in Gaza for the organization to cook.

First responders in Gaza also announced that their operations were at a near standstill, more than two months into a full Israeli blockade that has left food and fuel in severe shortage.