Palestinian residents said Israeli settlers descended from a nearby hill and carried out an attack on a school in the occupied West Bank, killing two people, including a teenage student.
The victims were identified as 14-year-old Aws Hamdi al-Naasan and 32-year-old Jihad Marzouq Abu Naim, who were shot dead Tuesday in the village of Al-Mughayyir, according to local reports.
"The students were taking their monthly exams. Suddenly, we were shocked to see settlers advancing towards the school and attacking it," principal Bassam Abu Assaf told AFP, as relatives and villagers gathered at the funeral.
Israeli settler violence has surged across the West Bank since the start of the Middle East War on Feb. 28.
Naasan and Abu Naim were among the latest victims of settler violence, which Israel's military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir previously condemned as "unacceptable."
"We ordered the students to sit on the floor, and the teaching staff also sat on the floor, out of fear of being hit by bullets because of the intensity of the shooting," Abu Assaf said.
He said Naasan was killed as he tried to flee the school, while Naim died attempting to rescue the children.
An AFP journalist later saw bloodstains outside the school.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it was examining the incident.
It said soldiers were dispatched to the area "following a report of rock hurling toward an Israeli vehicle carrying several civilians, including a reserve soldier, who exited the vehicle and opened fire at suspects in the area."
It said troops arrived at the scene and "acted to disperse the violent confrontation", without providing further details.
But Abu Assaf and other villagers told AFP that soldiers were present alongside the settlers during the attack on the school, before additional troops arrived separately.
Many of the West Bank's over 500,000 illegal settlers are reservists who sometimes wear military uniforms while off duty.
Ghanem Naasan, a school administrator, did not see the assailants but said the first gunshot sparked panic among students.
"There was panic, and the students were crying. Some of them were outside, so we teachers started helping the children come back inside," he said.
A 14-year-old student who asked not to be named said settlers, some carrying guns, came down from the hill and attacked the school from the western side.
A video shared on social media shows at least one man firing an assault rifle at the school from a place that an AFP journalist identified as identical to the western side of the building.
Al-Mughayyir mayor Amin Abu Aliya and principal Abu Assaf disputed the military's account.
The military did not immediately respond to an AFP request to comment.
Meanwhile, the funeral of Naasan was also briefly disrupted on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent reported.
As women ululated and men chanted while carrying the body through the village, an Israeli armored vehicle drove behind the crowd, prompting dozens of boys to throw stones and give chase.
Older residents pulled them back as soldiers fired tear gas, and the procession then continued calmly, with mourners carrying Palestinian flags.
Tuesday's attack was not an isolated incident.
Abu Assaf pointed to a pattern of recurring violence in the village, which, like others nearby, has seen a rise in settler attacks.
"This was not the first attack. There have been continuous attacks on the village in all aspects of life – agricultural, pastoral, and everything else," he said.
Fields once cultivated near the village now lie fallow, as residents fear attacks from settlers at nearby outposts.
On one plot, only the trunks of olive trees cut down in recent attacks remain.
Naasan's death was not the first loss suffered by his family.
His father, Hamdi al-Naasan, was also killed by settlers in 2019, according to his grandmother.
"He was all we had," Hamdi's mother Rehab Naasan told AFP.
"And yesterday, his son, his son was martyred."
