Israeli settlers attack Palestinian students heading to school in West Bank

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian students on their way to school early on Monday in the Al-Lubban Al-Sharqiya village, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The settlers were backed by Israeli forces, eyewitnesses told the news agency.

They harassed the students after storming the village, preventing them from reaching their school, the report said.

When students confronted the settlers, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas towards them, causing suffocation injuries among the schoolchildren and their parents.

Israeli settlers regularly attack children in the village, which is located on the main Nablus-Ramallah road.

Late on Sunday, Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian man driving near the village, Wafa reported. He was injured by the attack.

Israel invaded the West Bank in 1967 and has authorised the building of hundreds of settlements in the occupied territories – a move deemed illegal by the international community.

More than 380,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank, over 40 percent of them outside settlement blocs, Israeli daily Haaretz has found.

Palestinians in the West Bank often face intimidation and violence from settlers.