The school day had just begun on Tuesday when gunshots pierced the morning.
Children were in classrooms, teachers were preparing lessons and parents were going about their daily routine in the Palestinian village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah, when Israeli settlers, supported by Israeli soldiers, entered the area around the school and opened fire.
Within minutes, the school premises transformed into a scene of panic.
Two Palestinians were killed, including a 14-year-old, and several others were injured, as parents and residents rushed to the school to evacuate students trapped inside.
For residents, the attack was not an isolated incident, but the latest episode in what they describe as an ongoing campaign of violence against the village, a deliberate terror offensive to force them from their homes.
Parents run towards the shooting
Kadhim al-Hajj Mohammad said he was among those who rushed to the school after the administration called on families to go immediately to take their children home.
When the residents arrived, he said, Israeli settlers had already dispersed into the area, while Israeli soldiers had taken up positions nearby.
"The school asked the parents to come and pick up the children," he told Anadolu.
"But when the people came, the army also opened fire."
According to him, Jihad Abu Naim, who was likely a bystander during the attack on the school, was killed while standing among his parents outside.
Another victim, Aws al-Naasan, 14, was killed during the attack near the school.
Several other people were injured, some of them seriously.
Kadhim said what happened appeared to be carefully coordinated.
“The settlers came from one side and the army from the other,” he said. “It was a division of roles.”
He described the attack as part of daily efforts to force residents to leave the village through fear and repeated violence.
"We are surrounded in Al-Mughayyir, but we will stay on our land at all costs," he added.
Students trapped, parents injured
Another resident, Faraj al-Naasan, said the attack began just as students were arriving for school.
He said that Israeli settlers, accompanied by armed soldiers, headed towards the school, forcing the principal to request the evacuation of the children.
But before the worried families could reach the school, a severe and indiscriminate fire broke out.
“Everything happened in a matter of moments,” he told Anadolu. “There was shooting everywhere.”
According to him, some of the injured were students inside the school, while others were parents and residents who had come to help evacuate the children and the injured.
The result, he said, was chaos that spread throughout the school and surrounding streets within minutes.
Village under siege
Residents say Al-Mughayyir has faced repeated attacks in recent days.
The village has been under siege by the Israeli army since Sunday, after another attack by settlers that caused clashes on the outskirts.
While Israeli authorities had yet to comment on the incident as of 15:40 GMT on Tuesday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the attack constituted a massacre carried out in full coordination between Israeli settlers and the army.
In a statement, the ministry said "settler groups" targeted the school, killing two Palestinians, including a child, and wounding at least four others.
She described the attack as part of a broader Israeli policy aimed at imposing what she called an illegal and coercive reality through violence, settlement expansion and the gradual annexation of the occupied West Bank.
The ministry also warned that the lack of international responsibility is encouraging further attacks.
She called on the international community, especially European countries, to move beyond statements of condemnation and take concrete steps, including declaring settler groups as terrorist organizations and imposing sanctions on the settlement system and the Israeli military.
Violence by settlers and Israeli forces has escalated since October 2023, killing more than 1,148 Palestinians, injuring 11,750, and leading to nearly 22,000 arrests.
In a landmark 2024 opinion, the International Court of Justice declared the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
