Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Israeli settlers surrounded three Palestinian homes on the edge of a town in the occupied West Bank for five nights, with families inside saying they were unable to leave safely as food and water supplies ran low. The incident is the latest in a wave of settler violence in the territory, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and which Palestinians want as the main part of a future state.
advertisement
The standoff has also drawn an unusually sharp response from the United States. On Thursday, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee described the settlers as “terrorists”, a term American officials usually use for Palestinian militants, as criticism of Israel from Washington appeared to grow while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to maintain ties with Israel’s closest ally ahead of an October re-election battle.
In Qusra in the northern West Bank, Qusai Abu Rida said he was trapped inside one of the homes with his teenage son after settlers cut the water and electricity. He said they were forced to drink well water while dozens of settlers set up tents outside. His brother, Loui Ridi, a Palestinian American in Ohio who owns the house and spells the family name differently, watched events unfold on security cameras and kept calling for updates.
According to the families, dozens of settlers arrived on Sunday, blocked doors and stopped the occupants from leaving. Israeli troops intervened several times, but the settlers kept returning, Ridi said. Rights groups have long accused Israeli forces of ignoring settler violence or stepping in to protect settlers. “It’s a cycle,” Ridi said. “They need to be prevented from the entire area, not just removed and moved 100 feet away so when the (Israeli military) leaves, they come back.”
On Tuesday, Israel’s military called the siege “illegal, reprehensible, and unacceptable” and declared Qusra a closed military zone. The next day, dozens of settlers returned, tried to block the road with rocks and clashed with Israeli soldiers, according to video recorded by village residents. On Thursday, the military said troops dismantled “two illegal outposts” in Qusra and a nearby village, detained one Israeli and sent more soldiers to carry out “defensive missions and patrols”.
Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi said Israeli forces evacuated more than a dozen homes so they could take up positions in the village. He said the settlers had been removed from their outposts but were still present in other parts of the village. Abu Rida said soldiers gave the occupants of all the homes 30 minutes to evacuate and move into one of the besieged houses. The military said soldiers had been instructed to allow families to stay in their homes and not operate from them, but Abu Rida said families had still not returned.
It remained unclear when families in the besieged area would be able to get basic supplies or what would happen to their homes. Israel’s military said that when it checked on the families on Wednesday, they had basic supplies including food and water. But Ridi said on Thursday that after water and electricity lines had been restored, settlers cut them again.
The violence comes amid a wider rise in settler attacks in the West Bank. Netanyahu’s government, the most ultranationalist and religious in Israel’s history, has overseen increased settlement construction in the territory and opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, while viewing the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people. On Thursday, members of his Cabinet joined celebrations for the rebuilding of a settlement elsewhere in the West Bank that had been dismantled in 2005. “The era of withdrawals and expulsions has ended. The era of construction and Zionism begins,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
During Donald Trump’s first term as US president, his administration signalled broad acceptance of the settlements, which most of the international community considers illegal and an obstacle to peace. At the start of his second term, Trump lifted sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on settlers accused of violence. Huckabee, a long-time supporter of the settlements, has nevertheless criticised the rising attacks. “Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting,” he said in a post about the events in Qusra, adding that the embassy had been coordinating with the Israeli military and police.
Qusra has been a particular flashpoint. The UN humanitarian office said in April that it had recorded more settler attacks in Qusra than in any other West Bank community in 2026. According to the UN, a 25-year-old resident was shot dead by an off-duty Israeli reservist in March and eight others have been wounded in attacks. Violence between settlers and Palestinians in a nearby northern West Bank village last month left two Israelis and four Palestinians dead. Afterwards, a mosque in Qusra was set on fire and the word “revenge” was painted on its wall in Hebrew.
The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry says 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers this year. Israel says some of those killed were involved in terrorism, which it defines broadly to include militant attacks and rock-throwing, while Palestinian authorities do not separate militants and civilians in their death tolls. Palestinian officials have reported 1,476 settler attacks in 2026, including several cases in which settlers took over Palestinian homes and property. The Israeli military says it works to maintain law and order in the territory, and Cabinet ministers have blamed the attacks on a small group of young extremists acting outside the law.
About 2.8 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in population centres. More than 560,000 settlers, who are Israeli citizens, also live there, and there have been no Israeli-Palestinian peace talks for more than a decade. As the siege in Qusra continued to underline the wider tensions, Wadi said, “This is not a life that can continue this way. Too much pressure eventually causes an explosion.”
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
