Ammon News - Eleven Palestinian students , including five with live ammunition, were wounded, while dozens suffered suffocation from tear gas inhalation, during the ongoing Israeli military incursion on Birzeit University.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that the total number of injuries included five students struck by live ammunition, four who suffered from tear gas inhalation, and two who were injured from falling during the raid. All causalities were later transferred to hospital for medical treatment.

Nirdin Al-Mimi, the university's public relations officer, said that two other students sustained bruises from falling, and several others suffered from tear gas inhalation. She also confirmed that Israeli forces fired live ammunition, tear gas canisters, and stun grenades inside the campus.

Al-Mimi emphasized that approximately 8,000 students were present at the university at the time of the incursion, adding that Israeli soldiers smashed and damaged the university’s main gate, stormed several buildings and faculties, and sized equipment belonging to the student movement.

During the raid, Israeli forces also detained the university's Vice President for Academic Affairs, Assem Khalil.

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education condemned the raid, asserting that these attacks blatantly disregard all international norms and conventions that criminalize the violation of the sanctity of universities and educational institutions in general.

The Ministry emphasized that these violations will not break the will of national institutions, their students, and staff; rather, they will remain committed to the mission of knowledge and learning.

It reiterated its call to the International Association of Universities, the Association of Arab Universities, and all international, human rights, and media organizations to expose and curb these ongoing violations against Palestinian higher education and to take a firm stance against them.

WAFA