AL-MUGHAYYIR, OCCUPIED WEST BANK – A boy’s blood still stained the sidewalk in front of his school, days after an Israeli settler shot him dead.
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Aws al-Nasaan, 14, was gunned down in broad daylight last week in the small Palestinian village of Al-Mughayyir, in the occupied West Bank.
His death comes amid a dramatic escalation in settler violence, alongside a push to expand Israel’s control over the West Bank through new laws, settlement expansions and security crackdowns limiting Palestinians’ freedom. According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli settlers and forces have killed at least 42 Palestinians so far this year.
The attack, caught on video from multiple angles, took place just after noon on Tuesday, April 21. Video obtained by NBC News shows a bearded man in an Israeli military uniform firing down the hill toward the school. He crouches to get a better angle and keeps shooting.
Video shot from the road to the east side of the school shows bullets hitting the wall. In one of the videos, al-Nasaan’s body can be seen on the ground as his friends shout for help.
“They ran out of the gates trying to escape,” the school’s principal Bassem Abu Assaf said, pointing out the bullet holes still visible in the stone wall last week. “The shooting was crazy, just crazy, nonstop shooting.”
Construction worker Jihad Abu Naim, 32, was also killed in the attack, the principal said.
“This is supposed to be a safe place,” said Abu Assaf, who is responsible for 460 students. “School is a right for every child,” he added. But, fearful of another attack, classes were cancelled for a week.
Palestinian eyewitnesses say Israeli soldiers were on the scene within minutes and did nothing to stop or apprehend the shooter. Instead, they lobbed tear gas into the crowd of students and villagers outside of the school, Abu Assaf and multiple eyewitnesses said.
In response to questions from NBC News about the Al-Mughayyir attack, the Israeli military confirmed the shooter was a reservist soldier and said an investigation has been launched. A statement said: “The IDF reservist has been suspended from reserve duty pending the conclusion of the investigation and his weapon has been confiscated.”
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According to rights groups, Israeli settler violence has surged in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din documented nearly 400 incidents in the first 40 days of the Iran war. Incidents, many caught on video, include shootings, beatings, arson, land destruction, livestock theft and intimidation.
“The root reason is that everyone is looking elsewhere,” the organization’s CEO, Ziv Stahl said of the record spike in violence. “The world is distracted.”
