AL-MUGHAYYIR, OCCUPIED WEST BANK — A 14-year-old boy lay dying in the street, his ninth-grade classmates frantically trying to carry him to safety. A 32-year-old father, hearing the gunshots, rushed to the school to protect the children. He was shot and killed too.

The killers were Israeli settlers, armed with rifles, advancing slowly on the school and firing at children as they tried to flee.

This is what terrorism looks like when it's state-sponsored.

Family and friends mourn the death of Aws al-Naasan, 14, during his funeral in al-Mughayyir, north-east of Ramallah, on April 22, 2026

The Victims

Their names:

Aws Hamdi al-Naasan — 14 years old. Ninth grade student. Shot in the head while trying to escape his school. His friends carried his body away as bullets continued to fly.

Marzouq Abu Naim (also reported as Jihad Abu Naim) — 32 years old. Parent at the school. Lived nearby. Rushed to the school when he heard the gunshots. Shot dead while trying to save the children.

Four others were wounded — students and parents.

The attack happened around noon on April 21, 2026, at a school in Al-Mughayyir village, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

What Happened

Bassam Abu-Assaf, the school principal, told reporters that at least five armed settlers approached the village around noon. Some students were outside in the schoolyard when the gunfire began.

Video from the scene shows a man in military fatigues carrying a rifle, advancing slowly toward the village before crouching and firing at least eight rounds directly at the school. Activists identified the man as a known settler who has attacked the village before — he has a track record of terrorizing Palestinians, and he's still free.

"I saw shooting directed at classroom windows and balconies still full of children," a witness told Drop Site News. "Residents were attempting to evacuate the school by crawling."

A paramedic at the scene said at least three settlers deliberately fired at children attempting to escape from classrooms, positioned about 50 meters away — what he described as close to sniping accuracy.

Israel Defense Forces arrived during the attack. According to witnesses, they didn't stop the settlers. They protected them.

A 63-year-old man, Attallah Abu Aliya, told Reuters he was shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier without warning as he walked toward the school after hearing it was under attack.

This is the pattern: settlers attack, soldiers arrive, Palestinians die.

Palestinians mourned the deaths of Aws Hamdi al-Naasan, 14, and Jihad Marzouq Abu Naim, 32, who they said were killed in a settler attack on a school in the West Bank village of Al-Mughayi

The Aftermath

Videos filmed outside the school show the streets splattered with blood. Men and boys, young and old, run frantically, calling for help. Injured children and adults are carried away — one man with an exposed, bloodied torso.

"It was a disaster. Everybody was screaming. It was unbelievable," Abu-Assaf said. "I'm still processing it. I don't know how long it will take for the teachers and students to overcome the shock."

The Israeli military's excuse: rocks were thrown at a vehicle carrying Israeli passengers, including a reserve soldier, who "exited the vehicle and opened fire at suspects in the area."

A military source told The Guardian that the reservist has been suspended from duty pending a criminal investigation.

But here's what happens to Israelis who kill Palestinians: nothing.

Israel has not prosecuted a single Israeli citizen for killing Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since the start of this decade. That's not a typo. Zero prosecutions. While Israel's military claims to investigate, investigations go nowhere, perpetrators face no consequences, and the killing continues.

This Isn't Isolated

This attack was part of a coordinated wave of assaults on Palestinian education happening right now:

April 21, 2026 — Settlers attack school in Al-Mughayyir. Aws al-Naasan (14) and Marzouq Abu Naim (32) are killed. Four others wounded.

April 20, 2026 — Settlers use a bulldozer to demolish a school in Hammamat al-Maleh, in the northern Jordan Valley. The school was within sight of an Israeli military base. Soldiers there made no attempt to prevent the demolition.

April 20, 2026 — Settlers from the Karmiel settlement set up razor wire near Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills, blocking young students' route to school. Children have been protesting near the road every day, holding signs that say "we miss our school" and "protect us."

This is systematic. This is deliberate. This is targeting the next generation of Palestinians.

The Death Toll

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,152 Palestinians in the West Bank — including 239 children. More than 11,800 have been injured.

In the West Bank alone, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 1,079 Palestinians, with at least 235 of them children, according to UNRWA.

These aren't combat deaths. These are civilians, many of them children, killed in their own communities, often in their own schools.

Legal Context: This Is Illegal

Both Israel's occupation of Palestine and the colonization of Palestinian lands by Jewish settlers are illegal under international law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that an "occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice — where Israel is currently facing a genocide case for its war in Gaza — found that the occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid that must end as soon as possible. The ICJ also ruled that Israeli settler colonization of the West Bank amounts to annexation, which is a crime under international law.

Israel knows it's illegal. The world knows it's illegal. The settlers know it's illegal.

They keep killing anyway.

Bulldozers operated by Israeli settlers and soldiers uproot olive trees near the village of Al-Mughayyir, in the occupied West Bank, August 23, 2025. (Avishay Mohar/Activestills)

Al-Mughayyir: A Village Under Siege

Residents of Al-Mughayyir say the village faces near-daily settler attacks. This isn't an aberration — it's life under occupation.

"This is our reality in al-Mughayyir village; they aim to displace us, and both the army and the settlers are exchanging roles among them," Kathem al-Haj Ahmed, 57, told Reuters.

Abd al-Latif Abu Alya, 55, stands near one of thousands of olive trees that were uprooted by Israeli soldiers and settlers, in Al-Mughayyir, occupied West Bank, Aug. 24, 2025. (Oren Ziv)

Palestinian men collect wheat after an attack by Israeli settlers in al-Mughayyir in May

Another 14-year-old, Mohammed Naasan, was killed by IDF troops in al-Mughayyir in January 2026. The slain boy's father was also killed by settlers in 2019.

This is generational trauma, inflicted deliberately, with no consequences.

The Silence of Complicity

When armed men attack a school and shoot children in the head, that's terrorism. When a state protects the attackers and provides them with cover, that's state terrorism. When the international community issues statements of "concern" but takes no action, that's complicity.

Aws Hamdi al-Naasan was 14 years old. He was a student. He had a life ahead of him. He was shot in the head while trying to escape his school.

Marzouq Abu Naim was 32 years old. He was a parent. He heard gunshots and ran toward danger to save children. He was shot dead for it.

The people who killed them are walking free. The state that protects them is emboldened. The world that watches does nothing.

The question isn't whether this is terrorism. The question is how much more terrorism we're willing to accept before we call it what it is.

Genocide requires intent.

The intent here is clear: target children, target education, target the future of the Palestinian people. Make it impossible for them to live. Make them leave.

They killed a child in a school. They killed a father protecting children. They're bulldozing schools. They're blocking roads with razor wire. They're shooting students in the head.

The only thing missing is outrage. The only thing missing is action.

Aws al-Naasan is dead. Marzouq Abu Naim is dead. The killers are free.

And the world watches.