Nablus, occupied West Bank – School principal Mohammad Jaser presses a button to open the intercom system, and makes a routine announcement.

“The Israeli army has been spotted near the premises,” he says, his voice blaring from speakers and into the classrooms of the al-Sawiyeh al-Lebban school near Nablus in the northern West Bank last month. 

“Stay inside your classrooms, away from the windows, and lock the doors,” he instructs the students. “Prepare for an evacuation.”

Students and teachers at the mixed school, located between the villages of al-Sawiyeh and al-Lebban, have been trained to respond to incidents like this.

The school is often the target of Israeli army activity in the area, and has faced numerous incidents of armed settlers entering the premises and threatening students.

Due to the high frequency of violence at the school, emergency drills and trainings have been implemented to teach students how to respond to the incursions.

“Now, when we spot Israeli soldiers or settlers around the school, students know exactly what to do,” Jaser said.

Students, for instance, receive training on how to lessen the effects of tear gas and others are trained to provide first aid to their injured peers during confrontations, he says.

‘They like to point their weapons at the students’

The al-Sawiyeh al-Lebban school serves about 500 students, including 20 girls, from the sixth grade until the 12th.

The school is located in Area C, which comprised about 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli military control, situated alongside Road 60, a shared Israeli-Palestinian road that cuts through the West Bank.

Israel’s illegal Eli settlement, located on nearby hilltops, surrounds the school on almost all sides.

Jaser, who has been principal at the school for three years, sifts through dozens of videos and pictures of security incidents on his desk computer.

“This is when they came to arrest one of the students,” Jaser said, as he played a video showing Israeli soldiers strapping cuffs on a student outside the school and leading him to an Israeli army jeep.

During last semester, which commenced at the end of August, the school’s staff documented 65 Israeli violations at the school, and there has already been at least three documented violations since the current semester began on January 24, according to Jaser.

Abed, a teacher at the school who preferred that Al Jazeera not use his last name, says the first semester of this school year was the worst he experienced since the start of his tenure at al-Sawiyeh al-Lebban 12 years ago.

While most of the violations at the school were committed by the Israeli army, he says several times during the first semester armed Israeli settlers had also entered the school grounds, escorted by soldiers, and harassed and threatened students.

“The settlers and soldiers like to point their weapons at the students in order to frighten them,” Abed told Al Jazeera.

He recounts numerous instances of Israeli aggressions on the school, including Israeli forces firing tear gas at the school playground where children play football, patrolling the area and preventing students and teachers from entering the school grounds, and detaining teachers and students for interrogations.

In October, the Israeli army ordered the closure of the school entirely, stating that students were throwing stones from the premises.

But staff, students, parents and Palestinian officials resisted, and decided to open the school in defiance of the order.

Israeli forces responded by firing tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the crowd, injuring Palestinian Education Minister Sabri Saidam, Nablus Governor Akram Rajoub, and dozens of students and teachers.

Although the school administration succeeded in keeping the school doors open, the staff continues to feel on edge, anticipating another army closure at any moment.

As a result of these routine disruptions, “there are serious weaknesses in the teaching process,” Abed told Al Jazeera. The school is often forced to evacuate the students owing to Israeli army and settler activities in the area, causing students to miss out on their classes.

“It’s rare that the students are actually able to stay at the school until the last period,” Abed said.

“They are being evacuated and sent home almost every day, so it affects their ability to learn.”

On top of this, many parents are now too scared to send their children to the school, Abed explains, opting instead to transfer them to public schools in the nearby Salfit district or register them in private schools.

About 40 students have dropped out since the start of the school year, according to Abdulrahim Suleiman, the school’s vice principal.

‘Constant state of panic’

In November, Mohammad, a student at al-Sawiyeh al-Lebban who asked to use a pseudonym to protect his identity, was temporarily detained by Israeli forces on his walk back to his home from school.

The 17-year-old was stopped and interrogated by the soldiers for about two hours.

“They asked me about my family and had me name all of my siblings,” Mohammad explained to Al Jazeera, nervously fidgeting with his hands.

“They asked me who was throwing stones at the school and what I want to be when I grow up, while making jokes with each other.”

The soldiers then tied plastic cuffs around the teen’s wrists, blindfolded him and ordered him to lie on his back on the floor of an army jeep.

They proceeded to drive him to Israel’s Huwwara checkpoint in Nablus where they handed him over to the Palestinian police.

During the hours he was detained, “I was scared they would keep me and I would miss my exams and not be able to graduate,” he said.

Rights groups have noted that children facing occupation-related violence often experience “nightmares, bedwetting, higher levels of absenteeism from school, higher dropout and/or transfer rates, and lower levels of educational attainment”.

Furthermore, students attending schools targeted by the Israeli army and settlers have reported being in a “constant state of panic,” feeling “always tired,” experiencing “great difficulty” focusing on lessons, less motivation to attend school, and an increase of violent behaviours.

Zikra Daraghma, a 17-year-old student at al-Sawiyeh al-Lebban, tells Al Jazeera that she is often harassed by soldiers on her way to school.

“They [soldiers] stand in our way while we are going to school and don’t let us pass or make it difficult for us to get to school on time,” she said.

“They always threaten and insult us. I don’t even want to repeat the bad things they say to us.”

Israeli violations at Palestinian schools in the West Bank have seen a marked increase over the last several months.

The United Nations has documented 111 Israeli interferences to education in the West Bank from January-December 2018, affecting 19,196 Palestinian children.

More than half of these incidents involved “live ammunition, tear gas, and stun grenades fired into or near schools by Israeli forces, impacting the delivery of education or injuring students,” according to a UNICEF statement.

‘We are never safe’

Al-Sawiyeh al-Lebban, along with several other schools vulnerable to Israeli-related violence in the West Bank, began implementing emergency protocol trainings to prepare students and staff to adequately respond to Israeli army or settler confrontations.

As part of an initiative called Schools as Zones of Peace (SZoP), led by the international NGO Save the Children, “crisis cells” – or school disaster management committees – have been formed at vulnerable schools in the West Bank.

The cells consist of students, teachers and the principal and are responsible for acting in an emergency, and providing leadership and training in school disaster management.

The cells lead frequent school-wide emergency drills and trainings to help prepare students for potential incidents.

This includes training students and teachers on how to organise an evacuation of the school, how to adequately respond to weapons commonly fired by Israeli forces, such as tear gas, and how to provide first aid.

“The most important thing is keeping the children calm,” Suleiman tells Al Jazeera, noting that the organised and practiced emergency response makes students and teachers feel more in control of their situation.

In addition, the Palestinian Authority (PA) received permission from Israel to station several Palestinian security guards at al-Sawiyeh al-Lebban to provide more protection for students.

The unarmed Palestinian guards are stationed around the entrances of the school and attempt to prevent the Israeli army or settlers from approaching the area. The guards also escort vulnerable children to and from school.

The school’s staff told Al Jazeera that the presence of the PA security guards has significantly curbed Israeli activities in and around the school since their arrival at the start of the year.

For Daraghma, however, the Israeli army and settler presence has continued to affect her and her peers.

“It affects us more psychologically,” she said, “because when we see violence all around us, we can’t focus on learning.”

“Instead of paying attention to the lesson, we are constantly thinking about what’s going to happen to us when we leave school. Will I be hurt, detained, or maybe even killed?”

“We are never safe,” she added.

Sandwiched between India and Pakistan, Kashmir has been a flashpoint between the two nuclear powers since 1947.

Both New Delhi and Islamabad claim all of the region – each now controls parts of it after three wars in the past 70 years. A ceasefire agreement was reached sixteen years ago, but it has been regularly violated.

Last week there were fears India and Pakistan were on the brink of a new war. India carried out air attack in retaliation for a suicide bombing that killed at least 40 Indian troops in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan responded, shooting down a fighter jet and detaining its pilot, who was then returned to India as a gesture of goodwill.

But Indian and Pakistani forces have also exchanged heavy gunfire along the borders of Kashmir, killing at least seven people.

With recurrent clashes, is peace in this disputed Himalayan region even possible?

Presenter: Hashem Ahelbarra

Guests:

Prem Shankar Jha – Journalist and author of the book Kashmir 1947: The Origins of a Dispute

Victoria Schofield – Historian and specialist on Kashmir

Ahmed Rashid – Central Asia Security Analyst

Source: Al Jazeera News

Makassar, Indonesia – Earlier this month Sajad Jacob, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan who had been living in an Indonesian detention centre for nearly two decades, died in hospital. The 24-year old had doused himself in petrol and set himself on fire.

Jacob was a Hazara, a Shia Muslim minority that has suffered violent persecution in Afghanistan.

“I tried to help as much as I can because I also care and have humanity,” Arthur Mawikere, head of the detention centre in Manado where Jacob and his family were living, told Al Jazeera. Mawikere said he didn’t know whether Jacob’s self-immolation was deliberate.

Jacob’s family had fled Afghanistan when he was a child and had been in Indonesia since 2000. They had tried at least twice to be recognised as refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but had been rejected on both occasions.

The refugee agency offered to hear their case again last year but the family refused, instead taking to social media and hunger striking to demand immediate refugee status. Without the protection of being an asylum seeker either they became “illegal immigrants” at risk of deportation.

“I wanted to help but it’s the law,” Mawikere said. “Illegal immigrants cannot find work or housing.” Jacob’s family remain in detention, but could not be contacted because their phones had been confiscated.

There are increasing reports of mental health problems among the 14,000 people – asylum seekers and even those recognised as UN refugees – who now live in limbo in Indonesia. Most exist in immigration-controlled housing in a twilight world where they cannot work or get an education, and have little hope of resettlement elsewhere. Just 556 refugees got to leave Indonesia to start a new life in a third country last year.

Many find themselves in the archipelago as a result of Australian policies designed to deter people from arriving in the country by boat. 

Since 2000, Australia’s government has funded the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Indonesia, which handles relief for the UNHCR in Indonesia, part of a campaign to discourage people from trying to get to Australia by sea and claim asylum. Those who arrive by boat are sent to remote offshore camps in Nauru and Manus Island for “processing” with no chance of ever being resettled in Australia – even if they are found to be a refugee. 

‘Stranded and destitute’

According to UNHCR data, in 2017 Australia’s financial support for the IOM in the archipelago was more than three times its contribution to the refugee agency globally. 

But now that funding is being reduced too.

“The reduction in IOM funding, which was used in part to provide emergency relief and shelter for refugees, has left people stranded and destitute,” said Asher Hirsch, senior policy officer with the Refugee Council of Australia. “This, combined with the lack of rights in Indonesia, has caused significant mental stress for refugees stranded in Indonesia.”

After the UNHCR decides a person is a refugee, the IOM manages their life in Indonesia until they can be resettled, providing them with a monthly allowance – $90 for an adult and $36 for a child. 

This month, Australia’s government said it would reopen its detention centre on Christmas Island, an Australian territory just south of Indonesia, after parliament passed a law allowing those confined to Manus and Nauru to be brought to Australia for medical treatment if doctors said it was necessary.

The move ratcheted up an already restrictive immigration environment ahead of Australian elections due by May.

Mark Getchell, the IOM’s chief in Indonesia, said Australia’s decision to cut its assistance to the Indonesia programme could have been recognition that that support served as a “pull factor” for refugees.

The Australian government declined to respond to Al Jazeera’s specific questions on its policies in relation to asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs said its funding to IOM had “successfully supported irregular migrants in Indonesia while they pursue third country resettlement, where eligible to do so, rather than attempt the dangerous journey to Australia by boat”.

IOM stopped accepting new refugee applicants to the programme in March last year “to reduce the risk of irregular migrants drawn to Indonesia”, the spokesperson added.  

Since 2010, Australia has been accepting an average of about 400 refugees from Indonesia each year, but that figure dropped to 85 in 2017-18, according to data provided to the refugee council following a Freedom of Information request.

Other countries are also accepting fewer refugees for resettlement too, and fearful of returning home – even with assistance from the IOM – the asylum seekers and refugees are instead living in IOM shelters run by immigration.

‘Open prison’

Almost 2,000 people are crammed into the hostels in Makassar, the biggest number after Medan, where rules include a 10pm curfew, no overnight stays outside the shelter, and a ban on protests. 

Muhammad Joniad, a 25-year-old refugee and aspiring lawyer from Rakhine state in Myanmar, has gathered the stories of at least 17 people he says have died as a result of depression or a lack of medication. Jacob was the most recent entry on his list.

Like many, Joniad likens life in Indonesia to an “open prison” and is losing hope.

“I cannot tell my family the truth about here, because they are already suffering enough,” said Assadullah Amiri, 29, another Hazara refugee. “And now after six years, we’re told we’re still not vulnerable enough to be resettled?” 

Those living in Makassar say they can be returned to immigration detention for unknown lengths of time, their stipend suspended for breaking any of the rules. Getchell said the IOM does not support such arbitrary, indefinite detention.

“Domestic law governs the legal status of immigrants in Indonesia, but makes no reference to asylum seekers or refugees,” Hirsch said. “Instead, the law focuses on criminalisation, describing any person without a visa as an ‘illegal immigrant’.”

Refugees in Makassar have resorted to social media and twice-monthly demonstrations in front of the UNHCR and IOM offices to press their case. 

John Arash Sedigh, a Christian convert from Iran, has been there almost every morning since September.

He arrived in Indonesia with his wife in 2012 and after trying twice to get to Australia has been living for the past five years in the IOM shelter. 

Sedigh has given up on getting a boat out of Indonesia, and says his family’s situation has become a kind of mental torture. His wife and young son rarely venture out of the tiny room they share and he says his wife is having suicidal thoughts.

“If there was hope, it would be better,” said Sedigh, 40. “But when there is no option to go back, to stay as a human, or to get resettled, maybe we will all end it ourselves.”

Opposition leader Juan Guaido called for nationwide demonstrations on Monday to coincide with his planned return to Venezuela, a challenge expected to escalate his power struggle with President Nicolas Maduro.

Guaido on Sunday said Venezuelans should monitor his official announcements and he would provide details about meeting points for supporters. He said they should gather across the country at 11am (15:30 GMT).

“See you tomorrow,” Guaido said in a live video address on social media, adding it would be a “historic challenge” to return. He delivered a defiant warning to Venezuelan authorities if they attempt to detain him.

“If the regime dares, of course, to kidnap us, it will be the last mistake they make,” he said.

Guaido spoke to the camera in a room with his wife, Fabiana Rosales, beside him and a Venezuelan flag in the background.

‘Government overthrow’

The leader of the National Assembly who declared himself president also tweeted a photo of himself walking across an airfield ahead of his departure from the naval base in Salinas, Ecuador, where he met with Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno on Saturday.

Guaido said he was “taking off” but did not say where the plane was heading.

In Venezuela, anticipation grew ahead of Guaido’s expected arrival. Opposition activists circulated a call on social media for people to gather on Monday morning at the Alfredo Sadel plaza in Las Mercedes, a shopping and entertainment area in Caracas where protests have been held in the past.

The government, meanwhile, has urged Venezuelans to celebrate the Carnival season slated for Monday and Tuesday by traveling to beaches and other holiday spots. Many people don’t have the resources for leisure trips and opposition supporters say the country should not celebrate in times of crisis.

Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, did not directly address a question about whether Guaido faces arrest during an interview with Russian state-owned TV channel RT. But she left open the possibility saying Guaido had broken the law and was a “a Venezuelan who conspires with foreign governments to overthrow a constitutional government”.

Rodriguez spoke during a visit to Russia, which backs Maduro and has accused the United States of plotting his downfall.

Guaido was in Ecuador as part of a tour of Latin American countries designed to increase pressure on Maduro to resign.

‘Firm condemnation’

Guaido says Maduro’s exit would allow Venezuela to emerge from its political and humanitarian crisis with international support.

Maduro says Guaido is part of a US-backed plot against him and that a failed attempt by the opposition to bring aid into Venezuela from Brazil and Colombia last weekend was a political stunt.

The United States and about 50 other countries recognise Guaido as Venezuela’s president, arguing that Maduro’s re-election last year was a sham.

The US warned Venezuela’s leadership against harming the opposition figure.

“Any threats or acts against his safe return will be met with a strong and significant response from the United States and the international community,” said John Bolton, assistant to the president for national security affairs.

Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido has announced his planned return to Venezuela. Any threats or acts against his safe return will be met with a strong and significant response from the United States and the international community.

— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) March 4, 2019

Political analyst Luis Salamanca told AFP news agency Guaido’s rise will make it difficult for the government to incarcerate him.

“The challenge has gone very far. If he comes in and they stop him, it will generate strong internal reaction as well as internationally. Maduro is at permanent risk,” said Salamanca.

“Guaido has grown so much politically that they haven’t been able to touch him, in the traditional ways … which is to put him in prison or force him to flee the country, harass him.”

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has also warned against any action by the Venezuelan government against Guaido.

“In this respect any measure that could put at risk Juan Guaido’s freedom, safety or personal integrity would represent a major escalation of tensions and meet the firm condemnation of the international community,” Mogherini said.

At least 14 people were killed after a tornado slammed into the US state of Alabama and destroyed numerous homes with a death toll that could rise as rescuers sift through the rubble.

Emergency workers toiled into the night on Sunday, pulling bodies and the injured out of demolished homes and businesses in Lee County.

“I can say that at this time we have 14 confirmed fatalities,” Sheriff Jay Jones told WRBL-TV. “And again the search continues. We still have some people that are reported missing.”

Lee County Coroner Bill Harris said the death toll could rise.

“We’ve still got people being pulled out of rubble,” he told the Birmingham News newspaper. “We’re going to be here all night.”

Severe weather unleashed one of numerous possible tornadoes that threatened the southern United States. Weather warnings extended into Georgia, Florida and South Carolina.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey warned residents more severe weather might be on the way.

Power cuts

The storm left more than 10,000 people without power as the temperature dropped.

“Colder air will sweep into the southeast behind the severe weather with temperatures dropping,” AccuWeather meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said. “Those without power who rely on electric heat need to find ways to say warm.”

In rural Talbotton, Georgia, about 130km south of Atlanta, a handful of people were injured by either powerful straight-line winds that destroyed several mobile homes and damaged other buildings, said Leigh Ann Erenheim, director of the Talbot County Emergency Management Agency.

Televised news footage showed smashed buildings with rooftops blown away, cars overturned and debris everywhere.

Authorities said a tornado was confirmed by radar in the Florida Panhandle.

Don Harrigan, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, said there’s a “squall line” moving through the region.

“And when you have a mature line of storms moving into an area where low level winds are very strong, you tend to have tornadoes developing. It’s a favourable environment for tornados,” said Harrigan.

The threat of severe weather was expected to continue. A tornado watch was in effect for much of eastern Georgia, including Athens, Augusta and Savannah. The tornado watch also covered a large area of South Carolina, including the cities of Charleston and Columbia.    

President Donald Trump’s campaign on Sunday sought to downplay its support for government intervention in 5G wireless networks after getting blowback from Trump administration officials who favor an industry-led approach.

The campaign told POLITICO on Friday it backs a “wholesale” 5G network, which would see the government making 5G airwaves available through a sharing system with wireless providers. The idea, which Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale has repeatedly promoted on Twitter, would “drive down costs and provide access to millions of Americans who are currently underserved,” campaign spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement, adding the idea is in line with the president’s agenda “to benefit all Americans, regardless of geography.”

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That position put the campaign at odds with the view of key Trump administration figures like White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and members of the Federal Communications Commission, who believe wireless companies like AT&T and Verizon should manage the build-out of 5G. On Sunday, the campaign described Parscale’s support for a wholesale 5G network as his personal opinion and said there was no disconnect with the White House.

“The White House sets the policy on 5G and all issues,” McEnany said in a new statement, which was first reported by Axios. “Naturally, the campaign fully supports the President’s priorities and his policy agenda. There is no daylight between the White House and the campaign.”

The Trump administration has a history of contemplating a government role in 5G, which promises super-fast internet speeds and is seen as critical to future economic development. In early 2018, a leaked memo from the National Security Council envisioned the Trump administration building a nationwide 5G network to compete with China.

That proposal faced immediate rejection from the wireless industry, every FCC commissioner and lawmakers of both parties, amid fears of nationalization. The White House subsequently made a point of showing its support for the wireless industry’s efforts on 5G.

The idea of a wholesale network is being pushed by Rivada Networks, a politically connected wireless company backed by venture capitalist and Trump ally Peter Thiel. Veteran GOP operative Karl Rove, a Rivada adviser, is helping to cultivate an informal network of advocates to push the concept.

The Trump campaign said Parscale has no financial interest in Rivada or 5G. Newt Gingrich, who has also backed the idea of a public-private 5G model, also said he’s not getting paid by the company, but finds what it wants to do “fascinating.”

After news emerged on Friday that the Trump campaign backed the wholesale 5G plan, two FCC commissioners, Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Brendan Carr, rejected a bigger government role in next-generation networks.

“Turning heel on this successful, free market approach through China-like nationalization is a non-starter,” Carr tweeted.