Israeli forces attack Palestinian school with tear gas

Palestinian children were reportedly left struggling to breathe after Israeli forces fired tear gas at a school in the occupied West Bank.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors illegal settlement activity in the West Bank, said the attack happened on Monday at al-Lubban, to the north of Nablus at a school which was targeted by Israeli forces "almost on daily basis".

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and stun canisters toward the school, he added, which led to a number of children suffering suffocation from inhaling the gas, reported Palestinian Authority's news agency WAFA.

Last week a group of Israeli settlers carried out attacks overnight near Nablus, vandalising a mosque and cars and spraying "death to Arabs" on homes.

The group targeted the villages of al-Labban, al-Sharqiya and al-Aswiya, south of Nablus city, vandalising a mosque and slashing tyres of 30 vehicles.

Local sources told The New Arab's sister site al-Araby al-Jadeed the settlers tried to remove the doors of a village mosque with the intention of burning them, as well as defacing the walls of houses and cars with racist slogans including "Death to the Arabs" and "Revenge".

Other messages included "Expel or kill" and "Enough with administrative orders", referring to measures to prevent settler violence including detention, bans from entering the West Bank, and bans on contacting certain individuals, as well as nightly curfews.

More than 600,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in constructions considered illegal under international law and a major impediment to peace. 

Building on occupied territories breaks a number of UN Security Council resolutions.

The settlements are also banned under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.