An Israeli reservist shot and killed 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan outside the western gate of the Mughayyir Boys' High School, where he was a ninth-grade student. The boy collapsed immediately as his friends, amid gunfire, dragged his body to safety, leaving a trail of blood along the school wall.
Footage from inside the building shows terrified children and teachers huddled on the stairs, screaming for others to come inside. Another video shows the perpetrator, partially dressed in military uniform, taking aim from a hill in front of the school.
Minutes later, the same person also killed the brother of an English teacher who lived near the school. Jihad Abu Naim, 36, left behind a pregnant wife who was expecting their first child.
The April 21 incident is part of a growing wave of violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, where schools and students are increasingly being targeted. In the village of Mughayyir, home to about 3,000 people, attacks have been ongoing for years. Aws' father was also killed in 2019 while trying to help an injured neighbor.
Following the killings, classes were suspended for a week, as families face dilemmas between education and children's safety. "We want to go back to school, but our families are afraid," says one of Aws' classmates.
Attacks on education are not isolated cases. According to UNICEF, in Gaza, over 600,000 children are entering their third year without regular education, while thousands of students and hundreds of teachers have been killed and most schools have been damaged or destroyed.
The situation in the West Bank is also worsening. Just hours after the killing of Aws, settlers destroyed a school funded by Britain and European countries. In other areas, roads to schools have been blocked, while residents' protests have been dispersed with tear gas.
Human rights groups say there is a recurring pattern of violence and pressure on Palestinian communities, with the aim of displacing them. The Israeli military has said the suspect opened fire after his car was hit by stones, but footage shows he was hundreds of metres from the road when he opened fire.
In a reality where fear has entered schoolyards, even a simple call like "Come inside" becomes the final boundary between life and death.
