Palestinian parents fear for children's lives at school as settler attacks grow

Legenda da figura: Medo pela segurança das crianças em escola da Cisjordânia enquanto ataques de colonos aumentam.

BBC acompanha uma semana de violência de colonos israelenses na Cisjordânia ocupada Publicado em 28 de agosto.

Como colonos israelenses estão cercando casas de famílias palestinas na Cisjordânia Publicado 12 de agosto.

Nós esperamos que nossos filhos sejam mortos," diz o pai do adolescente morto na Cisjordânia à BBC.

No primeiro dia do novo ano letivo palestino, o diretor da escola de meninos de al‑Mughayyir chegou ao trabalho antes do amanhecer, caminhando passando pela cerca de arame farpado recém‑instalada e pelos portões reforçados da escola, enquanto o sol começava a escorregar entre as oliveiras ao redor da vila, no interior da Cisjordânia ocupada.

Estamos com medo," disse Bassam al Assaf. "Os estudantes estão com medo, e os pais também.

Seis pessoas, incluindo três alunos da escola, foram mortas em al-Mughayyir este ano, em um aumento da violência relacionada a colonos contra palestinos. Um deles, o de 14 anos Aws al-Naasan, foi morto a tiros por um colonizador fora dos portões da escola em abril.

Eu estava dentro da minha sala de aula e dois pequenos alunos vieram correndo para me dizer que havia colonos perto da parede da escola," lembra o professor de inglês Waheed Abu Naem, cujo irmão Jihad também foi morto por um soldado israelense no mesmo ataque.

Waheed said he was trying to move pupils to safety inside the school gate when the settler fired towards them. Mobile phone footage shows the moment Aws was shot.

Quando eu o deitei de costas, vi muita sangue saindo do nariz e da boca, e a bala na cabeça dele," disse Waheed. "Perdemos ele.

Ele me disse que as balas continuavam atingindo o prédio da escola, enquanto os estudantes se escondiam atrás das paredes de suas salas de aula ou se deitavam no chão.

Legenda da imagem: o irmão do professor de inglês Waheed Abu Naem foi morto em um tiroteio fora da escola em abril.

O exército israelense afirmou em comunicado na época que pedras foram arremessadas em um carro que transportava 'civis, incluindo um soldado reservista', e que o reservista saiu do veículo e atirou nos suspeitos.

A mídia israelense relatou que o reservista foi posteriormente suspenso do serviço e uma investigação foi iniciada.

Desde então, as baixas aumentaram junto com os temores dos pais.

Durante o verão, mais dois alunos foram mortos a tiros pelas forças israelenses durante ataques e incursões de colonos na vila, juntamente com um jovem de 19 anos que havia acabado de deixar a escola.

Em ambos os casos, o exército de Israel disse que suas forças responderam aos instigadores de "um motim violento.

Com três carteiras vazias nas salas de aula, alguns pais hesitaram em enviar seus filhos de volta para o novo ano letivo.

A escola fica bem na beira de Al‑Mughayyir, uma vila isolada a nordeste de Ramallah, cada vez mais cercada por postos de assentamento judeu, e regularmente bloqueada por forças israelenses que frequentemente operam um posto de controle ad‑hoc na entrada.

Bassam al-Assaf has installed a long barbed-wire fence around the compound and reinforced the school gates, to try and reassure parents. Ambulance crews are now stationed on the road outside, and several parents have volunteered to wait outside the school all day as an extra layer of protection.

Legenda da imagem: equipes de ambulância foram posicionadas na estrada fora da escola, enquanto vários pais se voluntariaram para ficar fora dos portões.

I came because it makes the children feel their parents are with them, that they are safe, it gives them a kind of security," said Haroon Bishara, whose boys are in the first and second grades.

Temos mais medo pelos nossos filhos este ano," ele me disse. "Sabemos que a situação não é segura na escola.

Mas ele disse que o medo estava misturado com uma determinação de não deixar que a ameaça de ataques de colonos os expulsasse.

Lined up in the playground for their first assembly, pupils heard the instructions repeated by teachers again and again throughout the day: if soldiers or settlers approach the school, don't shout, don't go near them, don't react.

Pouco mais de uma hora após o início das aulas, colonizadores foram avistados através das janelas da escola: dois homens conduzindo ovelhas pelos campos palestinos a cerca de duzentos metros da escola, enquanto soldados israelenses ficavam próximos.

Minutes later, another settler with a flock of sheep appeared.

We asked the Israeli army for its response to all the allegations in this report, but they were unable to provide one before publication.

All Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law. Many of the small ad-hoc settler outposts that have mushroomed around al-Mughayyir are illegal under Israeli law too.

Hadi al-Naasan, an ambulance driver in the village, said there had been a shift in the behaviour of Israeli forces over the past year. And that the rise in Palestinian deaths and injuries in al-Mughayyir this year reflected that.

At the beginning of 2025, settler attacks were few, due to the army's interventions," he said. "In 2026, the situation changed completely: the settlers became fully protected by the occupation soldiers.

Este ano, o número de mártires é maior, o número de feridos também é muito maior – e o número de feridos infantis é maior também.

Hadi, along with other residents of al-Mughayyir, believes that some Israeli settlers are now deliberately targeting children in order to put pressure on the adults in the village to leave their homes.

A UN Commission of Inquiry published in June found that settler attacks "have instrumentalized children, external as part of a broader coercive strategy to drive Palestinians off their land.

And it described "a pattern of settlers intentionally targeting Palestinian children" while they were playing near their homes, walking to and from school, tending to farms or herding livestock, "turning everyday spaces into sites of fear.

Israel dismissed the report as a "libellous sham.

Sheep farmer Sami Abu Rahma firmly believes that some violent settlers are targeting children.

At the end of July, his nine-year-old son Salim was shot and injured as he played with his siblings on the family sheep farm outside al-Mughayyir. The bullet is still lodged in his arm.

Legenda da imagem: filho de Sami, Salim, foi baleado enquanto brincava com amigos em julho.

Footage from security cameras at the farm shows Salim pointing, and shouting to his parents that settlers are approaching, before running for shelter with his siblings and mother, as two gunshots are heard.

In that moment, you stop thinking; you just feel fear," Sami told me. "Fear that, God forbid, [the attacker] was shooting to kill. The first thing in your mind is losing the most precious thing you have.

The man who shot his son, he said, lived in an illegal settler outpost that appeared next to the farm in June – and had previously shot at Salim in the same area a week before.

You no longer feel you can keep them safe in the street, or even at school," he said. "The settlers don't want us to stay here, [they want us to feel] as if there's no future for us here.

Sami said he was the last sheep farmer left in the area, the others all chased away by settler attacks. The settler who shot his son had told the family repeatedly to leave their land, he said.

No matter how determined you might be to stay," he added, "what do you do when settlers start shooting your kids.

O conselho regional de colonos nos informou que um soldado fora de serviço foi preso sob suspeita de envolvimento no tiroteio.

We regret any harm to innocent people, Jews or Arabs, and oppose any act of violence that violates the law," it said in a statement, adding that it rejected "the attempt to attribute to the entire settlement community in Judea and Samaria acts that have not yet been determined by an investigation, as well as the baseless claim that lawful sheep grazing or Jewish presence in the area are part of a deliberate plan to harm children or drive residents from their homes.

Al-Mughayyir faz parte de um padrão que se desenrola pela Cisjordânia Ocupada, com mais postos ilegais de colonos cercando vilarejos palestinos, mais proteção para colonos por forças israelenses, e ataques migrando de fazendas e pastagens para áreas urbanizadas, onde mulheres e crianças estão mais em risco.

Children, seeing the army enter, don't grasp the gravity of the situation," said the local ambulance crew, Hadi al-Naasan. "Adults are more aware of how events can unfold.

UN figures suggest that the number of Palestinians injured during settler attacks by Israeli soldiers or settlers has risen sharply this year to an average of three injuries per day, and that the number of injuries inflicted directly by settlers themselves is also higher.

This rise has been accompanied by an expansion of Israeli settlements and settler outposts in the West Bank.

All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, and Israel's fiercely pro-settlement government is under growing international pressure - including from the UK, which is expected to announce sanctions this week in response to Israeli settlement policies.

The arrest of some violent settlers and a reported plan by Israel's prime minister to dismantle illegal outposts in the West Bank have not so far stopped attacks, nor reassured Palestinians who say outposts previously demolished by Israeli authorities were quickly rebuilt.

With Israeli elections less than two months away, Israel's Finance Ministry pushed forward plans this week to take over land registration in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, described by the Israeli settlement monitor Peace Now as "a clear step towards annexation.

O primeiro‑ministro de Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, atribuiu a violência dos colonos a uma minúscula minoria extremista, descrevendo‑os em uma recente entrevista televisiva como “150 delinquentes juvenis”.

Since the beginning of 2025, the UN has recorded 316 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers, and more than 5,600 injured, to the end of July 2026. It says 20 Israelis were killed over the same period, including one child and eight members of the security forces, and 123 Israelis injured.

Palestinian parents who have stayed in villages like al-Mughayyir through escalating settler violence are now facing a growing fear of losing their children if they stay on their land.

UK, France, Germany, Italy and Canada condemn Israel's West Bank settlement project.