On 21 April, illegal settler and head of Homesh “religious school”, Schmuel Wendy, shot dead two Palestinians outside al Mughayyir boy’s School, in the occupied West Bank. One was a 13-year-old pupil. There have been numerous claims that Wendy is the killer, but he denies even being in the village at the time. But the Canary spoke to various people who were at the school that day to find out more.
Schmuel Wendy, illegal settler and head of Homesh “religious school” fired shots at uniformed Palestinian Red Crescent Society Paramedic
Al Mughayyir experiences daily raids by the occupation’s military, and violent attacks by settlers who live in any one of the nine illegal outposts surrounding the village. So two of our sources have requested anonymity, for fear of reprisals.
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) are often stationed at the entrance to al Mughayyir, which is close to the boy’s school. They restrict residents’ movements and generally terrorise them in whichever ways they wish.
A Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRSC) volunteer, tells us he had been visiting the school regularly, for days before the two residents of al Mughayyir were shot This was due to regular and escalating problems there, caused by the IOF. He says:
On the day of the shooting, armed settlers came and sat behind the olive trees, about 200 metres from here. The children in school saw them through their classroom windows, and started screaming and shouting. I went and talked with the settlers, to tell them to go away. But they just started swearing and cussing at me. Schmuel Wendy was there. I thought he was a soldier, not a settler, because he was wearing military uniform. So I thought I could talk with him, and get them all to leave. But I was wrong. He went to the ground and fired two bullets in my direction, even though I was wearing my paramedic uniform. The bullets just missed me and hit the wall behind. I then went back to the school doors, which the principal had already shut, to go and protect the children.
There were two West Bank settlers in army uniform and four masked occupation soldiers. All were armed
Waheed Abu Naim is the Principal’s assistant, and an English teacher at the school. On the day of the attack, students rushed into his classroom from outside, to tell him some settlers were near to the wall of the school. He says:
It was about 12 when I left my class and went over to the settlers. There was a small short wall between me and them. There were 2 settlers wearing old-looking army uniform. Four military soldiers stood behind them, in uniform and wearing masks to hide their faces. The six of them were together, and all had long guns. I stood behind that wall to talk to them. I asked the settler who was in front, why he was here. He told me “Leave this place. Go back”. I then spoke to the military soldiers in English, telling them to take their settlers and go. One of the soldiers went in front of the settlers, raising his gun towards me. He was just four metres away, and told me I had to leave and go back to my school. Then I understood they wanted to make a crime. I quickly tried to take all the students inside, before danger arrived.
One al Mughayyir resident, whose nephew is a pupil at the school, told us he wasted no time when he learnt settlers and the army were there.
‘You need to go home, because today I intend to kill someone’
He arrived to help protect the children and bring them home. He tells us:
I saw Waheed, the English teacher, talking to the soldiers, so I joined him. Wendy was one of the settlers. He was armed and in semi military uniform. He told me, in Hebrew: “You need to go home, because today I’m intending to kill someone.
In the time it took for Abu Naim to take two pupils inside and then come back outside for the others, Wendy had opened fire on al Mughayyir residents.
Abu Naim says he is in no doubt it was Wendy who killed that day. He says:
We know this shooter, Schmuel Wendy, very well. For 2 years he has been coming many times to our camps where my uncle’s family keep sheep, in the nearby al Khaleel area. He used to go there to attack and raise his gun towards them, to shout and push them. The aim was to scare them and their children. As soon as I talked to him I knew who he was, because he comes by many times and has a settlement close to the village. That time he came with four soldiers.
Abu Naim continues:
The bullets hit the wall first, then he shot one of our students, Aws, who was outside. He fell down on his face. We turned him over, and saw the bullet in the front of his head. There was a lot of blood coming from Aws’ mouth and nose, and it is still on the ground today. We carried him to my car. When I was about to drive to Abu Falah medical centre, in the neighbouring village, I was called to take another injured person. We arrived within five minutes, but the doctor told us we had lost Aws.
Aws was a danger to no one, but the intention was shoot to kill him
The 45 year old PRCS volunteer, has been working with the Red Crescent for more than 10 years. He tells the Canary:
Aws was a danger to no one. But the intention was to shoot to kill. They did not shoot him in his legs, or somewhere else to injure him. Instead, they pointed at his head, to kill him. They want to intimidate and scare us, to the point where we will never feel safe. During the shooting, a military vehicle stopped by the school entrance and asked me what was going on. I told the army “What do you mean what is going on? The settlers are shooting at us.” The soldier said, “I don’t care. You have five minutes to evacuate the whole school. The police are coming and they will deal with this.” It wasn’t even five minutes before tear gas was fired at us.
The al Mughayyir resident told us he was doing his best to protect the children from the shooting and teargas.
There was a man on the ground, who had fainted because of the gas. He had come to protect the students. Me and Jihad, Waheed’s brother, took him to a safe place. Then we tried to evacuate the children from the area, and went to higher ground to protect them. Everything was chaotic, everyone was shouting, and there was a lot of tear gas. To our surprise, we saw that the shooter was Schmuel Wendy, head of the Homesh religious school. At the moment we noticed him, we were in his line of fire. As I shouted at Jihad to leave, someone yelled that he was injured. The shooting was continuous, and shrapnel hit my leg. Me and another guy pulled Jihad about 10 metres, so he was out of the firing line, and carried him about 200 metres to the nearest car. We drove to Abu Falah medical centre, and when we arrived we learnt that Aws had already been martyred.
Wendy ran out of bullets, so he took a new magazine from Israeli occupation soldiers, and then shot dead Jihad Abu Naim
Jihad Abu Naim had been working in Turmus Ayya, a village 8km from al Mughayyir. When he heard what was happening he drove to the village, to help rescue the students. But he was shot in the right side of his chest, by zionist killer Schmuel Wendy. Waheed was unaware at the time that his brother had been shot and killed.
He told the Canary:
While I was at the medical centre, my father called me to say Jihad was arriving. I thought he was bringing someone from our village who was injured. But when the car arrived, I found my brother inside. The doctor said there was still a pulse, and started pushing his chest to get him breathing again, but it didn’t work. So, they put him inside the ambulance to go to Ramallah hospital. He died on the way. On that day Wendy continued shooting for more than 20 minutes. After we took the second injury to Abu Falah, he ran out of bullets so went down and took a new magazine from the pocket of one of the military soldiers. Then he shot my brother.
The martyrs and injured were evacuated that day using cars belonging to villagers, as the IOF prevented ambulances from entering the village.The al Mughayyir resident says:
Ambulances were at the village entrance. But when we left the village we knew the injuries were serious, so preferred to keep going using private cars, so we didn’t waste any time. The ambulances were near the soldiers anyway, and they would have abducted our injured people. I really think this day was preplanned. At the same time as the shooting, the IOF had also blocked the nearby village of Silwad, so ambulances couldn’t leave there for al Mughayyir.
West Bank — Two killed and three injured by bullets, two injured by tear gas
According to the PRCS volunteer, there were also three gunshot injuries that day. A 16-year-old student was shot in the hand, while a man in his 30s helping to evacuate the children was shot in the abdomen. The third injured person was 60-year-old man. He was sitting in front of the army, just observing. He was shot at very close range, and a bullet went through his thigh, from one side to the other. Two people also suffered from tear gas suffocation, one was pregnant.
This school attack was the first by settlers. But those carried out by the IOF occur on a very regular basis and involve the use of tear gas and sound bombs on al Mughayyir’s school and its pupils. The school, which has around 450 children, is the only boy’s school in the village, so is extremely important. School Principal, Bassam Abu Assaf tells us:
The attacks here are not acceptable. If we were to let children leave from the main gate that day, many more students would have been lost. The wall here is full of bullets.
There is one motive for these continued attacks — to worry parents and pupils enough that children will stop attending school. Their education will then suffer greatly.
Students in the West Bank have the right to study in safety
But Abu Assaf and his team are determined to ensure students will not miss out on their education, and the school will remain open. He says:
Now we are helping pupils more and more to complete their higher education. We do not allow any of the students to leave, as it is the only school. All of us need our chance to live in peace, and complete our higher education in a safe environment. This is a right of all students all over the world. Palestinian people refuse violence, and want to live like any other people in the world, without attacks.
It is almost two months after 13-year-old Aws Hamdi al-Naasan and Jihad Marzouk Abu Naim were martyred. But no one has been held accountable. Every day, Waheed Abu Naim looks out of his classroom window to see a Palestinian flag flying on the nearby hilltop. It marks the spot where his brother was shot and killed. The community is still grieving.
https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/shooting-vid.mp4
Yet despite the intentional killings, multiple injuries, and numerous eyewitness accounts, there have been no arrests or meaningful investigations. We must bring an end to the system in which attacks on Palestinians can take place in broad daylight, in front of a school in the occupied West Bank. All while the Zionist colonisers who terrorise these Palestinian communities escape with no consequences whatsoever.
Choice of 3 featured images:
- Flag on hill marking where Jihad was martyred
- Overview of school area
- School
Featured image via Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
By Charlie Jaay
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