“What happened to him was unfair,” she said, recalling that she learned of his death while she was still at school herself.
School turned into a battlefield
Mohammad Abu Naeem said his cousin Jihad was shot while trying to help the wounded during the attack.
“There was direct gunfire. Suddenly, Jihad fell in front of me. We could not save him,” he said.
School principal Issam Abu Assaf said teachers tried to keep students inside and prevent panic as gunfire erupted outside.
He said Israeli forces also fired tear gas toward students, causing several cases of suffocation, while one student was hit by live ammunition.
“More than 20 students from the school have been killed in recent years,” he said.
Residents said the killings were part of a broader pattern of repeated settler violence, including assaults, land theft and attacks on homes, carried out alongside ongoing Israeli military incursions.
The town remains under siege, with residents fearing more attacks.
Since October 2023, at least 1,133 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, nearly 11,700 wounded and close to 22,000 arrested, according to Palestinian figures.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal and called for the dismantling of all settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.