Before dawn broke over the olive‑lined hills of al‑Mughayyir, head‑teacher Bassam al‑Assaf walked through newly installed barbed‑wire fencing and reinforced gates to open the boys’ school for the first day of the Palestinian academic year. The fortified entrance, meant to protect children, is now a stark symbol of a village living under constant threat.
“We are scared,” he said. “The students are afraid, and their parents are afraid.”
This year alone, six people have been killed in al‑Mughayyir three of them pupils amid a surge in settler‑related violence across the occupied West Bank. Among the victims was 14‑year‑old Aws al‑Naasan, shot dead by a settler just outside the school gates in April.
English teacher Waheed Abu Naem remembers the moment with painful clarity. “I was inside my classroom and two little students came rushing to tell me there were settlers close to the school wall,” he said. His brother Jihad was also killed in the same attack, shot by an Israeli soldier.
Waheed said he was trying to move pupils to safety inside the gate when the settler opened fire. Mobile phone footage captured the moment Aws was shot a scene that has haunted the village ever since.
As children return to their classrooms, fear hangs heavily over al‑Mughayyir. Parents walk their sons to school with trembling caution, teachers brace for the next emergency, and the community steels itself against violence that shows no sign of easing.
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