In the village of al-Mughayyir in the occupied West Bank, a school has wrapped itself in barbed wire and stationed ambulances at its gates — not as symbols of conflict, but as the quiet architecture of survival. Three of its pupils were killed by settlers and Israeli forces in 2026, and the new academic year began not with celebration but with drills teaching children how to remain still when armed men approach. This is a place where the ordinary rituals of childhood — walking to school, tending a farm, playing with siblings — have become acts of exposure, and where a community must decide, ea
West Bank school fortifies against settler violence as three pupils killed this year
Three pupils killed at al-Mughayyir school in 2026; a 14-year-old shot outside school gates in April; a 9-year-old shot and injured while playing on family farm with bullet lodged in arm; six total killed in village this year.