2 Palestinians, including 14-year-old, killed in attack on Israeli settlers in West Bank: health officials
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Two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in the Israeli-controlled West Bank on Tuesday after settlers and Israeli soldiers opened fire, witnesses said, while in Gaza health officials said two Palestinians died in Israeli strikes.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan and 32-year-old Jihad Abu Naim were killed in an attack by settlers in al-Mughyyir neighborhood and left three others injured.
Amin Abu Ulaya, the head of the local council, told Reuters that settlers and soldiers entered the village and opened fire on the school, first shooting students and then others who arrived at the scene.
The Israeli military said troops were deployed in al-Mughyyir area after reports that stones were thrown at an Israeli vehicle carrying civilians and a soldier, who got out of the vehicle and opened fire on “suspects” in the area.
When they arrived, soldiers worked to break up what the military described as violent confrontations.
The army said it is aware of the allegations that two Palestinians were killed and others injured, adding that the incident is still under review.
“This led to the killing of a student and another person,” said Abu Ulaya, explaining the events of panic in the village when parents ran to the school looking for their children.
Escalation of violence
The shooting in al-Mughayyir, 25 kilometers north of Ramallah, is the latest in what rights groups have described as an escalation of violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers and soldiers.
Kathem Al-Haj-Ahmed, 57, a resident of al-Mughyyir, said the settlers arrived first and attacked the local school.
“This is our reality in the village of al-Mughyyer; they intend to displace us, and the soldiers and the settlers are alternating between them,” he told Reuters.
The town has been the center of conflict between Palestinians and Israeli settlers, with Palestinians reporting a number of attacks in 2025, including fatal shootings, arson and vandalism. The main road to al-Mughayyir is often closed by a military gate, and residents say they have gradually lost access to their fields and olive groves.
With the fragile Israeli-Hamas ceasefire, violence has erupted among Palestinian residents in the West Bank, which human rights groups say the Israeli government is turning a blind eye to.
Some Israeli officials have condemned “Jewish riots” in the West Bank while also saying the minority is behind the violence. Some officials have supported the settlers and asked for more places to live.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal by the United Nations and many countries. The Palestinians hope that the West Bank will be part of a future independent state.
Settlement expansion in the West Bank has increased under Israel’s current right-wing government, with some 700,000 Jewish immigrants now living there, among some 2.7 million Palestinians.
Most of the estates were destroyed during Israeli military raids last summer, after a Palestinian gunman allegedly opened fire on Israeli settlers grazing sheep near the village. Eight settlements now surround al-Mughyyir, including Adei Ad, which was legally sanctioned by the Israeli government in December.
Another 14-year-old, Mohammed Naasan, was killed there in January.
Al-Naasan and Abu Naim are the latest Palestinians to be killed this year in the West Bank, where 10 people were killed by Israeli settlers – more than the number of settlers killed in 2025.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 240 Palestinians were killed in the area last year, most of them by Israeli soldiers and nine were allegedly killed by settlers.
