Children March Against Fence Blocking West Bank School Route

Children chanted in English at Israeli soldiers watching from the other side.

A five-year-old girl stood before the fence and pleaded to open the road for school access, stating she and others were not doing anything wrong and just had their books. The children held up posters, sang songs, and banged on drums for several hours while soldiers stood meters away, at times waving mockingly and mimicking the songs along with a security guard from the Carmel settlement.

Some children sat on rocks adjacent to the barbed wire, took out their books, and worked on schoolwork during the protest.

When the children tried to go around the fence, Israeli soldiers launched tear gas and sound grenades at them, including those as young as five. Security camera footage recorded by community members showed settlers erecting the fence during the night, and soldiers refused to take it down despite it being on private land.

Shortly after the fence went up, settlers built a large Star of David with stones on the inaccessible side. At 7 a.m. on April 19, parents, teachers, and community members walked with children holding a banner declaring 'Umm al-Khair Freedom School' before reaching the barrier.

The community plans to hold daily peaceful demonstrations with lessons, music, and activities at the blocked path until it reopens. The path also serves women walking to a nearby health clinic and worshippers heading to the mosque. Israeli authorities offered an alternative route roughly three kilometers long, but residents rejected it because it passes through new settler outposts installed since last summer.

Several settler caravans now sit on that route, directly behind the village’s community center and family homes. The head of the Umm al-Khair village council said the path was established in 1980 and that the fence aims to confiscate land and pressure families by blocking education. He noted 55 students are affected and have been deprived of schoolwork for more than 50 days.

'You aren’t talking about one or two children. You are talking about 55 students. In any other country, if this many children couldn’t reach school, the president would resign. But here, there are no solutions apparently,' the village council head said.

A teacher who teaches grades four through eight at the blocked school stated, 'Education is a right for everyone, including the children of Umm al-Khair.' He added, 'We see the Israeli authorities are really complicit in what is happening here.' A parent of three school-age children said settlers have scattered wooden planks with protruding nails along the roadside, damaging cars.

He stated, 'You can’t leave a child, six years old, to walk near the caravans. Settlers drive their cars fast. Settlers drive their ATVs in bad behaviour, without control. Some have no licence.' Last month, a five-year-old girl was struck by a settler’s car while crossing through Umm al-Khair and admitted to hospital with a head injury.

Last summer, Awdah Hathaleen was killed in the area, and Yinon Levy, an internationally sanctioned settler, was arrested and charged in the fatal shooting. Levy worked to clear land in Umm al-Khair to prepare for the caravans. A ten-year-old girl stated at the protest that she wants to be a doctor and must learn to achieve that.

A thirteen-year-old girl panicked and cried during the event, saying, 'I am scared. I am scared.' She wants to be a lawyer to defend the Palestinian cause and specifically the cause of Umm al-Khair.

Some children trembled as soldiers approached from the other side of the fence. Palestinian schools in the West Bank were closed for more than 40 days during the US-Israeli war on Iran. A ceasefire allowed them to reopen last week for three days a week as of April 20, 2026.

Schooling has been interrupted for years due to Palestinian Authority budget cuts after Israel withheld West Bank tax revenues and successive wars. The Umm al-Khair community faces imminent Israeli demolition orders later in April 2026 due to a lack of building permits, which are almost never granted to Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank, entirely under Israeli control.

The village sits on the same hill as the illegal Israeli settlement of Carmel.