Two Palestinians killed during settler attack on West Bank village, officials say
Two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, have been killed in an attack involving Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers in a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials.
Two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, have been killed in an attack involving Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers in a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials.
The Mayor of al-Mughayyir, Amin Abu Alia, told the BBC that around 10 settlers approached the village along with soldiers and started shooting towards a school.
He said Aws al-Naasan, 14, and Jihad Abu Naim, 32, were killed by soldiers. The Palestinian health ministry blamed "settler gunfire".
Israel's military said it dispatched soldiers after a report of stones being thrown towards an Israeli car carrying civilians, including a reservist who got out and "opened fire at suspects in the area".
The soldiers then "acted to disperse the violent confrontation", it added.
The military said it was aware of the casualty reports and that Tuesday's incident was under review.
A mobile phone video appears to show an Israeli soldier opening fire. Other footage shows panic outside the school gates as medics and parents try to get to the dead and the injured.
Eyewitness Kathem al-Haj Ahmed, 57, who lives in the village, told Reuters news agency: "The school was surprised by herds of settlers, who attacked the school along with the army."
"So they [the school] started to call the people to come and escort their children home, and that is when the settlers shot from one side and the army from the other," he added.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it called the "terrorist attack and massacre carried out by settler gangs, in full co-ordination with the Israeli occupation army".
It is the latest attack in what the United Nations (UN) has called a surge in settler violence.
Before Tuesday, at least 10 Palestinians had been killed and 385 others injured by settlers across the West Bank since the start of 2026, according to the UN.
Six were killed in March, when it documented more than 200 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage - an average of six attacks every day.
The UN has said that some 1,750 Palestinians have also been displaced by settler violence and Israeli access restrictions so far this year.
"This is our reality in al-Mughayyir village; it's a displacement operation," said Kathem al-Haj Ahmed. "They attack us from all sides... and both the army and the settlers are exchanging roles among them."
Human rights groups have accused the Israeli military of allowing extremist settlers to operate with impunity.
Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a future state - during the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.
The settlements are illegal under international law.
