Israelis invade school

Statement by Abdul Wahab Sabbah, Abu Dis, 14th February 2007

I was rung at about 11 o’clock this morning by the head teacher of the Abu Dis Boys’ School who was asking for help as something very terrible was happening in his school. I got there as soon as I could and when I got to the school it was terrible, there was a real crisis. The school gate was broken, there were people from Abu Dis (parents) coming in, kids and teachers in crisis, the head teacher upset as he had rung the Palestinian Ministry of Education and was feeling blamed for not protecting his children.

I was told that a jeep full of Israeli soldiers (6 of them) had burst into the school. There is a guard at the school but he did not manage to stop them. The students were on break but they ran into their classrooms to hide. The soldiers went into one classroom after another (grades 7, 8 and 9) and started beating the boys. The teachers stood in front to try to protect the boys but the soldiers pushed them away. The soldiers hit the boys with batons . The boys put their hands over their heads to try and protect themselves and their hands got hit – they were badly hurt, we think that some of them have their hands broken.

I was told that everyone was scared as the Israeli soldiers had threatened to come back and repeat this beating.

Many of the students were beaten and hurt but 6 of them have serious injuries. Along with two people - a teacher from the school and the father of one of the children who had been beaten - I took these boys in a Ford Transit to the Al Muqassed clinic, to see Dr Abdullah – an army jeep followed us the whole way.

Dr Abdullah said that the boys needed an X ray which can’t be done in Abu Dis so he took them to Azariyeh – These are the boys he took with him:

Ahmed Khalid Mohsen (12 years old) (possibly 2 of his left fingers broken)
Abdul Rahim Ahmed Halabiye (14 years old) (beaten badly all over his body by three soldiers and his left elbow possibly broken)
Ahmed Mohammad Mahmoud Saireh (14 years old) (started this school 2 days ago) (his left hand possibly broken)
Mohammed Qasim Rabiye (15 years old) (his right side hurting near his kidneys, his right hand possibly broken)
Ali Yussuf Bader (14 years old) (his left hand possibly broken)
One more boy was scared and left the clinic.

I was told that everyone was scared as the Israeli soldiers had threatened to come back and repeat this beating.

(The picture is a library one from Reuters, not of this specific incident)