Palestinian boy, 14, among two killed in settler attack near West Bank school | West Bank
Two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old student, were killed in the occupied West Bank after Israeli settlers opened fire near a school, witnesses and local officials said, at a time when attacks on education in the region are increasing.
The Palestinian health ministry said that 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan and 32-year-old Jihad Abu Naim were killed and three people were injured in the attack on Mugayyir village. The head of the local council told Reuters that Israeli settlers had entered the village and Shots opened near the school – first to the students, then to others who arrived on the scene. Eyewitnesses said the settlers were then followed by Israeli soldiers.
Footage seen by the Guardian shows a settler in military fatigues, identified by activists as someone known for previous attacks on the village, as he slowly advances towards al-Mughayyir with a rifle in his hand, crouches down and fires at least eight shots towards the school.
Videos taken outside the school show blood splattering on the street as gunshots are heard. Injured children and adults (including a man with an exposed, bloodied torso) are seen being carried away, while men and boys young and old run frantically and call for help.
A video obtained by CNN It shows the moment Aws, a ninth-grade student, was shot and killed. His friends are seen running towards him and taking away his body.
The second Palestinian killed, Abu Naim, was a school parent who lived nearby. School principal Abu-Assaf said he ran there after hearing gunshots and was shot.
Eyewitness Kathem al-Haj Ahmed, 57, told Reuters the settlers came first and attacked the village school. Palestinians in the West Bank are frequently subjected to unprovoked attacks by Israeli settlers.
“This is our reality in Al-Mughayyer village; they aim to displace us and both the army and the settlers are exchanging roles between themselves,” he said.
The Israel Defense Forces said it sent troops to al-Mughayyir, where residents of the village say they face almost daily settler attacks, after reports that an Israeli vehicle carrying civilians and a reservist was thrown rocks and opened fire on people who abandoned the car and were described by the military as “suspicious”. The IDF said soldiers later intervened to break up what it called a violent clash.
A military source told the Guardian that one reservist had been suspended from reserve duty and his weapon confiscated pending the outcome of a criminal investigation by the military police.
The shooting in al-Mughayyir, about 15.5 miles (25 km) northeast of Ramallah, is the latest in what human rights groups describe as an increase in violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers and soldiers.
In a separate incident on Monday, activists said settlers bulldozed a school in Hammamat al-Maleh, near Tayasir in the northern Jordan valley.
Community leaders elsewhere said settlers in the Karmiel settlement had placed barbed wire near Umm al-Khair in the Southern Hebron hills, blocking the road children used to reach school. Khaleel Alhathaleen, head of Umm al-Khair’s village council, said the closure hindered the movement of students and disrupted their education.
After schools were closed for more than 40 days during the US-Israeli war against Iran, children in Umm al-Khair returned last week to find that settlers had fenced off their school roads. When citizens tried to pass, he said: soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenadesscaring many children too much to turn back.
Settlement expansion in the West Bank increased rapidly under Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government, and about 700,000 settlers now live there among about 2.7 million Palestinians.
The Palestinian health ministry said 1,152 Palestinians, including 239 children, have been killed and more than 11,800 Palestinians have been injured in the West Bank since October 7, 2023.
A Guardian analysis of legal data and public records showed that Israel has not prosecuted any Israeli citizens for the killing of Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of this decade.
on tuesday At least seven Palestinians were killed According to local media reports, four people near Khan Younis were involved in Israel’s attacks in Gaza.
