A tenth-grade Palestinian student was left “clinically dead” following his fall from a third-story classroom window on Tuesday, sparking bitter accusations that the incident was a result of an ongoing teachers’ union strike.

The injury occurred when a newly-appointed teacher at Ash-Shafi’i school in Gaza City allegedly threw a student from a classroom window. The teacher had been brought in as a replacement due to the ongoing strike in Gaza’s public schools.

The secretary general of the striking teacher’s union, Jamil Shahada, told Ma’an in a telephone call that the student was announced “clinically dead” on Tuesday. Arafa As-Sawwaf was taken to Ash-Shifa Hospital where medical workers announced his condition.

“One of the de facto government’s teachers threw Arafa from the third floor,” Shahada said.

But the de facto government’s education ministry disputed the claim, saying the incident was almost certainly “accidental.” Spokesperson Khalid Radi told Ma’an that his ministry had appointed a committee to follow up on the incident, saying the outcome would be published “in full.”

The father of the boy, Raafat As-Sawwaf, told Ma’an that his son was admitted to the intensive care unit at the Gaza City hospital on Tuesday. He appealed to Palestinian officials to help him get a permit to take his son to a hospital outside Gaza, as “his skull was ruptured and there is internal bleeding.”

He also told Ma’an that the boy had not been “thrown” from the window, but that the incident was not an accident, either. As-Sawwaf explained that the teacher had been chasing his son on the third floor, where he attempted to climb a pipe from the window. From there, the teacher reportedly struck the boy with a rod, causing the fall.

Now that’s a teacher’s strike.

Notice the almost throwaway line “He appealed to Palestinian officials to help him get a permit to take his son to a hospital outside Gaza..” I’m willing to bet “hospital outside Gaza” means “hospital in Israel.”