By Mohammed Torokman and Ali Sawafta
JERICHO/RAMALLAH (Reuters) -Half of the pupils stayed away from classes at an elementary school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday, a day after it was attacked by Jewish settlers with wooden bats in violence that has surged since the Gaza war erupted.
This type of attack, which wounded seven people according to Palestinian officials, has tested the patience of Israel's allies, including the United States, who have called for restraint in the West Bank as the death toll climbs in Gaza and the conflict spreads in the Middle East.
A video filmed by Israeli activists and posted on social media showed a band of young men striking people who were screaming in the yard of Al-Ka'abneh school during the assault in a Bedouin area near Jericho on Monday.
"Half of the students today did not come to school because of the state of fear and terror they experienced yesterday because of the settlers' attack on the school," Ahmed Nasser, an official at the Palestinian Ministry of Education, told Reuters.
Violence against Palestinian villages was on the rise even before the outbreak of the Gaza war, as settlement building has spread unchecked across the West Bank.
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel, triggering the Gaza conflict, such attacks by Israeli settlers have increased. Figures last month from the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA showed them running at around four per day.
"We were studying as usual in class, then they started saying that settlers attacked the schools, I was able to gather my siblings so that nothing happens to them," said student Aya Mlehat. "I was able to gather them in a classroom, and the settlers started banging on the class trying to open it against our will."
'WE RAN AND HID'
Palestinians and rights groups regularly accuse Israeli forces of standing by as attacks take place and sometimes even joining in themselves. Legal action against violent settlers is rare.
"The army came along with the settlers, we ran and hid in a class with a teacher, and did not go back to the class... He told us to stay low under the tables, we stayed under the table and he told us to be quiet," said student Malak Mlehat.
The Israeli military said settlers arrived after a report that an Israeli civilian had received a head injury in a clash with Palestinians.
"A confrontation was instigated at the scene, during which a number of Palestinians were injured," it said in a statement. It said soldiers and police arrived and dealt with the confrontation, detaining several suspects in the area.
Countries including the United States have begun imposing sanctions on individuals and face pressure to do more and to curb the expansion of settlements on land the Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state, a key part of the two-state solution favoured by Western countries.
At the same time the West Bank has witnessed almost daily sweeps by Israeli forces that have involved thousands of arrests and regular gunbattles between security forces and Palestinian fighters.
More than 703 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, including both fighters and unarmed civilians, according to the Palestinian health authorities.
In the same period, about 40 Israeli troops and civilians have been killed in attacks by Palestinians or in clashes with fighters, according to figures from Israel's domestic security agency.
Most countries deem Jewish settlements built on land Israel occupied in a 1967 Middle East war as illegal, and their expansion has for decades been among the most contentious issues between Israel, the Palestinians and the international community. Israel cites biblical, historical and political ties to the area.