West Bank town bids farewell to 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli occupiers

Residents of al-Mughayyir town in the central West Bank paid farewell on Wednesday to two Palestinians, including a child, killed in an attack by Israeli occupiers a day earlier amid an ongoing siege on the territory.

As residents held a funeral procession for 14-year-old Aws Hamdi al-Nasan and 32-year-old Jihad Marzouq Abu Naeem, witnesses said Israeli forces were deployed around the town and repeatedly raided it, while dozens of occupiers gathered on its outskirts.

As mourners gathered, an Israeli military vehicle moved into the crowd, which residents viewed as a provocation. Young men threw stones, and Israeli forces fired tear gas before withdrawing.

Palestinian health authorities said Tuesday that two Palestinians, including a child, were killed and three others wounded in an attack by Israeli occupiers near a school in the town.

Rehab al-Nasan, the grandmother of Aws, said her grandson was shot twice in the head, adding the family had long feared for his safety after his father was killed years earlier.

“We moved him from one place to another out of fear for him … but he was killed at school, a place meant to be safe,” she said.

Talia al-Nasan, his sister, said he was a regular student going to school and meeting his friends.

“What happened to him was unfair,” she said, adding that she learned about her brother’s death while at school.

School under attack

Mohammad Abu Naeem said his cousin Jihad was shot when he went out to help the wounded.

“There was direct gunfire. Suddenly Jihad fell in front of me. We could not save him,” he recalled.

School principal Issam Abu Assaf said staff tried to protect students and prevent them from leaving despite the gunfire before evacuating them to a safer area.

He added that Israeli forces fired tear gas at students, causing suffocation, with one student shot with live fire.

“More than 20 students from the school have been killed in recent years,” he said.

Residents said the attack was part of a pattern of repeated occupiers’ attacks, including property theft and assaults on residents, alongside ongoing Israeli military incursions.

As residents mourn, the town remains under siege amid fears of renewed attacks and ongoing threats by Israeli occupiers.

Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers in the West Bank have killed at least 1,133 Palestinians, wounded about 11,700 others and led to nearly 22,000 arrests, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Lina Altawell in Istanbul