School attacks in the West Bank worry Palestinian parents

In the village of al-Mughayyir, in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian parents live in a harrowing dilemma: whether or not to send their children to school. Fear of attacks by Jewish settlers and Israeli army raids intensified after a series of violent incidents that left three students dead this year alone. The local school, located at the end of the village, became the scene of shootings and panic, leading families to organize to protect the children.

Waheed Abu Naem, an English teacher, remembers the day his brother, Jihad, was killed by an Israeli soldier in an attack outside the school in April. “I was inside my classroom when two small students came running to tell me that there were settlers near the school wall,” she says. While trying to get the students to a safe place, a settler shot at them. Cellphone images show the moment the 14-year-old student Aws al-Naasan was shot.

“When I turned him on his back, I saw a lot of blood coming out of his nose and mouth, and the bullet in his head,” Waheed said. "We lost him." Bullets continued to hit the school building as students hid behind the walls of the classrooms or lay on the floor. In the same attack, six people were killed, including three schoolchildren, in a wave of settler-related violence against Palestinians.

Divergent versions of the shooting

In a statement released at the time, the Israeli army said stones had been thrown at a car carrying "civilians, including a reserve soldier", and that the reservist had left the vehicle and fired at suspects. Israeli media reported that the reservist was subsequently removed from his duties and that an investigation was opened. The source did not detail the progress of this investigation.

During the summer, two other students were shot dead by Israeli forces during settler attacks and raids on the village, along with a 19-year-old who had just left school. In both cases, the Israeli army said its forces responded to those responsible for "a violent riot". The versions diverge, but the result is the same: classrooms with empty wallets and a grieving community.

Parents mobilize for safety

With three empty wallets in the classrooms, some parents were reluctant to send their children back for the new school year. The school is at the very end of al-Mughayyir, an isolated village northeast of Ramallah, increasingly surrounded by outposts of Jewish settlers and often blockaded by Israeli forces, who often maintain a makeshift checkpoint at the entrance.

On the first day of class, ambulance teams were positioned on the road outside the school, while several parents volunteered to remain outside the gates. “I came because it makes children feel that their parents are with them, that they are safe. This gives them a sense of security,” said Haroon Bishara, whose children study in the first and second year. "We fear more for our children this year," he admitted. "We know that the situation at the school is not safe."

But this fear comes with the determination not to allow the threat of settler attacks to force them out. The presence of parents is an act of silent resistance, a way of saying that education will not be interrupted by fear.

Safety protocols and constant voltage

Lined up in the yard for the first meeting of the year, students heard the instructions repeated by teachers several times throughout the day: if soldiers or settlers approach the school, do not shout, do not approach them, and do not react. The rules are simple, but they carry the weight of recent traumatic experiences.

A little over an hour after school began, settlers were spotted from the school windows: two men driving sheep through Palestinian fields a few hundred meters from the school, while Israeli soldiers remained nearby. Minutes later, another settler appeared with a flock of sheep. “They have come closer to the village since April,” Abu Naem said. "They used to keep the sheep behind that hill, but now the soldiers bring the settlers to the village."

The school routine in al-Mughayyir is marked by this constant tension. Every movement in the surrounding hills is observed with suspicion. Education, the basic right of any child, has become an act of courage in a region where violence can erupt at any time.

As long as the community adapts to this reality, the future remains uncertain. The classrooms are still open, but the fear does not disappear. For al-Mughayyir’s parents, each day of school is a small and fragile victory against the siege that closes around the village.

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