Two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, were shot dead in an attack by Israeli settlers at a school in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health and witnesses said.
Video from the scene shows a man wearing military uniform and carrying a rifle slowly moving through the village of Al Mughair, crouching down and firing at least eight shots at the school. Activists say the man is a known settler who has attacked the village in the past.
Residents say al-Mughayyil is targeted by settler attacks on an almost daily basis.
The Ministry of Health named the two Palestinians who were killed as school guardians Aws al-Nathan, 14, and Jihad Abu Naim, 32.
The killing is one of a series of attacks on Palestinian schools and schoolchildren in the West Bank in recent days, with school buildings vandalized and, in another incident, settlers putting up razor wire to prevent children as young as 5 from attending school.
Bassam Abu Assaf, principal of the boys’ school that was shot, said at least five armed settlers approached the village of al-Mughair, northeast of Ramallah, around noon. Some students were reportedly outside the school grounds when the shooting started.
The Israeli military said the incident started when stones were thrown at a vehicle carrying several Israeli passengers, including reservists, who “got out of the vehicle and opened fire on the suspects in the area.”
The military sent soldiers to the scene and said it was “aware of the allegations” that two Palestinians were killed and another injured, and that “the incident is under review.”
Video obtained by CNN shows the moment 14-year-old Oz, a third-year middle school student, was shot and killed. Friends can be seen running and carrying the body away.
The second person killed, Abu Naim, a Palestinian, was a school parent who lived nearby. Principal Abu Assaf said he rushed to the school after hearing gunshots and was later shot himself.
“It was a disaster. Everyone was screaming. It was unbelievable. We are still dealing with it. We don’t know how long it will take for teachers and students to get over the shock,” he said, adding that four people, including students and parents, were injured.
Video from in front of the school showed blood spattered on the street, gunshots rang out in the distance, and crowds of young and old men and women running desperately for help. Injured boys and men, some with their upper bodies exposed and covered in blood, can be seen being carried away.
The deadly shooting is the latest in a surge of increasingly brazen and violent attacks against Palestinians, carried out by Israeli settlers and sometimes by soldiers. Although the Israeli military frequently says it investigates such incidents, it often fails to arrest or hold perpetrators accountable.
In a separate incident, settlers bulldozed a school in Hamamat al-Maleh, near the village of Tayasir in the northern Jordan Valley, on Monday night, activists said, and a CNN team was detained and assaulted by soldiers last month.
Local activists told CNN that the area has been targeted by settlers in recent months, forcing Palestinian residents from their land.
Activists say the settlers are from the same group that built illegal outposts nearby and used them as bases for attacks on Palestinians.
The activists added that even though the school was within sight of an Israeli military base, the soldiers there did not try to stop the demolition.
CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.
“It is important to emphasize that the Hamamatius school destruction is part of a systematic, serious and continuing violation of the ability of Palestinian girls and boys to exercise their fundamental right to education,” the Jordan Valley activist group said in a statement.
In a third incident also targeting schoolchildren, settlers from the Karmiel settlement installed razor wire near the village of Umm al-Khair in the southern Hebron hills, blocking young students’ route to school, according to community leader Khaliel al-Hassareen.
“This road is the main artery on which students in the village depend, and its closure is a clear violation of their freedom of movement and a direct hindrance to their educational process,” Alhasareen said in a statement.
As settlers blocked the road last Monday, footage sent to CNN by the community showed Israeli soldiers standing atop a hill, surrounding more than 20 children as what appeared to be tear gas sprayed the area.
Alhasareen said children have been protesting near the road every day since the power lines were installed. Photos sent to CNN show them holding slips of paper with slogans such as “I miss school,” “Protect us” and “Let our children learn.”
Umm al-Khair has been subject to repeated settler attacks and land grabs by settlers. Auda al-Hassareen, a prominent Palestinian activist who produced the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was shot and killed during a settler attack last year.
Yonin Levi, who was accused of the death, was placed under house arrest for three days, but was later released by an Israeli court.
