VATICAN CITY, MARCH 7, 2002 (Zenit.org).- L´Osservatore Romano described the recent Israeli attacks against Palestinian schools as «barbaric acts.»
The Vatican´s semiofficial newspaper today reported that Israeli soldiers fired at an Arab school in Tulkarem on Tuesday because the children were throwing stones. The shots wounded four pupils, two of whom, aged 11 and 17, are in critical condition.
On Wednesday a school in the Egyptian city of Rafa, on the border with the Gaza Strip, had its windows shattered in an exchange of shots between Israelis and Palestinians, the Egyptian police reported. The number of victims was not reported.
«The attacks on the schools represent a new instrument of violence that profanes the Holy Land, in the face of the international community´s indifference,» the Italian edition of L´Osservatore Romano reported.
«For two consecutive days, Palestinian students have been the target of assaults, which strike at the heart of a people´s future, their dreams, and the hopes for a better world,» the newspaper continued.
«The bomb placed in an institute´s courtyard and the blast of shots fired by Israeli soldiers against a group of students at the school´s entrance are a barbaric act that increases the spiral of violence,» the newspaper added.
L´Osservatore Romano highlighted the «climate of general indifference» in which discussions are carried out in Washington, D.C., on the peace proposal of Saudi Prince Abdala ben Abdelaziz. President George W. Bush and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have described the discussions as «very positive.»
