JERUSALEM (AA)

Israeli Knesset member Tzvi Sukkot stormed an orphanage school in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, smashing a sign bearing the school's name and the Palestinian flag, and threatening to close it and other Palestinian educational institutions in the city.

Sukkot, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party, released a video on Tuesday evening documenting his storming of the school and destruction of the sign.

He said that 'a school affiliated with the Palestinian Authority cannot continue to exist within territories under Israeli sovereignty,' as he put it.

Sukkot, who heads the Knesset's Education Committee, added: 'We will close this school and all similar educational institutions in Jerusalem.'

Meanwhile, Arab Israeli Knesset member Ayman Odeh condemned the school storming, calling it an attack on a Palestinian educational institution.

In a post on the American platform X, he said: 'The storming of a school in East Jerusalem by the head of the Knesset's Education Committee and its vandalism simply because it had a Palestinian flag on it is unimaginable.'

He added: 'If the head of an education committee in any other country had stormed a Jewish school and vandalized it because it had an Israeli flag, the world would be in shock, and that is exactly what should happen.'

Odeh continued: 'A school is a place where children are supposed to learn and grow, not a playground for chaos and nonsense among politicians and youths lost in their election campaigns.'

Approximately 390,000 Palestinians live in occupied East Jerusalem, while the vast majority of the city's schools continue to teach the Palestinian curriculum despite increasing Israeli pressure, especially under Benjamin Netanyahu's government, to impose the Israeli curriculum on Palestinian schools.

Palestinians insist that Jerusalem is the capital of their desired state, while Israel claims the city, including both its eastern and western sectors, as its capital—a claim that lacks international recognition.

In recent weeks, Sukkot has made visits and incursions into several Arab schools inside Israel, which he said were intended to monitor curricula, but were met with protests from parents who accused him of incitement and seeking to target Arab education.

The school storming coincides with an escalation in Israeli right-wing attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, ahead of the Israeli general elections scheduled for October 27.