Pupils return to West Bank school behind barbed wire to protect against settlers

A school in the occupied West Bank has been surrounded by barbed-wire fencing as Palestinian parents fear for their children's safety due to the rise of Israeli settler attacks in the area. The isolated village of al-Mughayyir, north-east of Ramallah, has been increasingly surrounded by Jewish settler outposts, and regularly blocked by Israeli forces who frequently operate an ad-hoc checkpoint at the entrance. Six people, including three pupils at the school, have been killed in al-Mughayyir this year, in a surge of settler-related violence against Palestinians. One of them, 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan, was shot dead by a settler outside the school gates in April. 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. Source: BBC World