This West Bank teen feared he wouldn't survive the year. Now, he's dead
Omar Nassan was a student at a West Bank school where a gunman, later identified as an Israeli military reservist, opened fire this spring, killing two Palestinians. Half a year later, Omar himself died in a melee involving the Israeli Defence Forces.
Omar Nassan, 17, spoke to CBC News in April and was killed amid violence in September
Tom Parry · CBC News
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The cemetery in the West Bank village of Al Mughayyir is dotted with burial sites draped with the Palestinian flag, marking the graves of local men and boys killed in clashes over the years with Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces.
It was one of the places 17-year-old Omar Nassan insisted that CBC News visit back in April.
Omar was a student at the local boys' school where a gunman, later identified as an Israeli military reservist, opened fire this spring, killing two Palestinians: 32-year-old Jihad Abu Naim and 14-year-old Aws al-Nassan. Both now lay in that small cemetery overlooking hills, fields and a busy roadway.
Omar and Aws had been good friends, and he talked about life in Al Mughayyir with a deep sense of frustration and fatalism.
It can’t get more dangerous.Omar Nassan
"To be honest, I didn’t tell this to anyone … but I already accepted death. I’m going to be dead," Omar said. "I lost my friend and he’s not the first first friend I lose, whether it’s getting killed or in prison. He’s not the first or the last friend I lose, so I already accept death. I’m going to be next."
Omar said many young men in the village felt the same way. The stress of life in the Occupied West Bank, combined with the constant threat of violence, had worn them down.
"It can’t get more dangerous," he said. "We’re used to that now. It’s our life."
Omar’s words on that April afternoon proved tragically prescient.
The cemetery in the village of Al Mughayyir is dotted with burial sites draped with the Palestinian flag, marking the graves of local men and boys killed in clashes with Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces. (CBC)
A violent night
On the evening of Sept. 2, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) deployed troops to Al Mughayyir to back up Israeli police responding to a disturbance over missing livestock. Palestinian villagers routinely accuse Israeli settlers of stealing sheep and allowing their own flocks to graze on Palestinian land.
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The IDF says it was brought in to retrieve animals owned by Israeli civilians when a violent riot broke out. In a statement, the military says soldiers encountered what it calls "terrorists" hurling cinderblocks and stones. The soldiers fired on what the IDF calls "key instigators" and that "hits were identified."
Two young Palestinians died that night: 16-year-old Khalil Abu Alia and 17-year-old Omar Nassan.
Omar’s family says he was shot just outside their home in Al Mughayyir. His father, Mohammad Nassan, says his son was struck by three bullets and managed to stumble a few steps before crumpling to the ground. He says an ambulance took his son to hospital but medics were unable to save his life.
"My back is broken," Nassan said of his son’s death, in an interview with CBC News. "He helped me in every detail of my life. "
Omar Nassan's parents, Mohammad and Rania, say their son was struck by three bullets during a melee between Israeli Defence Forces and Palestinian protesters in September. (CBC)
Omar’s mother, Rania, says her son loved to eat, did well at school and had a natural talent for working with computers. Omar learned English, she says, at school in her native country, Egypt.
On the night Omar died, Rania Nassan says she heard screaming and chanting outside her home and rushed to lock the door. She says Omar ran after her and begged her to let him go downstairs to see what was happening.
She relented.
"I opened the door and told him to take care of himself," she said. "And that was it."
As the melee in the street continued, Rania says she began receiving text messages from neighours saying Omar had been injured. Women from the village eventually came to tell her that he was dead.
"I felt that my soul was separated," Rania said, describing that moment. "I felt like the mountains would not bear the news."
Before and after Oct. 7
Rania says Omar was deeply affected by the loss of his friend in the school shooting in April. He confided to her his feelings that he could be the next to die. She regrets not talking to him more about it.
Palestinian youth are seen on the streets of Al Mughayyir. (CBC)
The Nassan family believes Omar was shot by an IDF sniper soon after he left his home. The IDF won’t confirm that.
As for the shooting at the school in April, the IDF says the case is currently under review by the Military Advocate General’s Corps, but won’t say whether the review or its ruling will be made public.
Marzouq Abu Naim, whose son Jihad was killed in the school attack, is a member of the Al Mughayyir Village Council. By his count, Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces have killed 11 people in the community, eight of them under the age of 18.
The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs lists nine Palestinian deaths in Al Mughayyir since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Abu Naim says after that attack, in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage, the IDF began treating people in his village far more harshly.
"Before October 7, the army would keep us apart when there was a problem between the settlers and us," he said. "After October 7, we wished that the army would not come. Because if the army came, the problem would be more difficult. The army sprays tear gas at us and the army shoots."
Abu Naim's son is buried in Al Mughayyir's cemetery. Half a year after showing it to CBC News, Omar Nassan is buried there, too.
Omar's father says the family is planning to install a monument to remember him, but for now, it's just a simple gravesite draped, like others in the cemetery, with a Palestinian flag.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Parry is a senior reporter for CBC News on Parliament Hill. He has been with the CBC since 1990 and has been based in Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Vancouver, Regina, Toronto and London, England.
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