Israeli Settlers Besiege Palestinian Families in West Bank Village as Military Struggles to Respond
Israeli settlers have trapped three Palestinian families inside their homes in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra, blocking all entrances and cutting off water and electricity. The siege began on Sunday, according to resident Aisha Abu Rida, and continued into Wednesday even after additional Israeli military forces were sent to the area south of Nablus Al Jazeera.
Security camera footage from the village showed both Israeli settlers and soldiers surrounding one of the besieged houses. Aisha Abu Rida said that while water and electricity had been cut off, she and her family intended to stay. The family has been relying on a temporary solar power system and leftover well water from the winter months after supply lines were cut Al Jazeera.
Loai Ridi, an American-Palestinian who owns a house in Qusra, reported that his brother Qusai Abu Rida and 18-year-old nephew Ahmed were among those trapped. He said his brother had only two to three days of supplies left and feared that settlers would seize the home if the family left. Loai Ridi also said that Israeli soldiers did little to help when his brother called for assistance, and that soldiers knelt to pray alongside the settlers at the scene Al Jazeera.
On Wednesday, additional Israeli forces arrived, dismantled the settlers' tent, and clashed with roughly 50 to 60 settlers before withdrawing. The Israeli military said it would send an additional infantry battalion to the area, with its chief of general staff ordering efforts to strengthen order and operational control. A day earlier, the military said it had received reports of settlers entering and seizing Palestinian homes and land, calling the activity "illegal, reprehensible and unacceptable." The military also said disciplinary action would be taken against security personnel filmed at the site in preceding days Al Jazeera.
The Times of Israel reported that the infantry battalion was dispatched after clashes between Israeli forces and settler activists on the outskirts of Qusra hindered efforts to remove settler extremists besieging a Palestinian home. Reuters separately reported that Israeli troops had clashed with Jewish settlers while trying to disperse them from a West Bank outpost they had set up directly near Palestinian homes The Times of Israel; Reuters. WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, reported the siege continuing for a second consecutive day on August 11 WAFA.
Qusra sits in Area B of the occupied West Bank. Under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank is divided into Areas A, B, and C. Area B is under Palestinian civil administration but Israeli security control, meaning the Israeli military is the primary security authority there. The village has recently suffered other attacks, including the burning of a newly built mosque the previous month. In the neighbouring village of Jalud, a similar two-week siege in July forced two Palestinian families off their land before settlers took over the property Al Jazeera.
The events in Qusra follow a documented pattern of settler activity targeting the village. In October 2023, Israeli settlers shot dead three Palestinians at an olive grove near Qusra. WAFA has previously reported on olive pickers attacked in the village and their crops burned, as well as the blocking of the town's main entrance to Palestinian residents by Israeli occupation forces Reuters; WAFA; WAFA.
The broader context here involves a structural tension in the West Bank's security architecture. Area B designations place Palestinian communities under Israeli military security control, so the Israeli Defense Forces serve as the primary security authority in zones where Palestinian civil administration nominally operates. When settler activity targets Palestinian property in these areas, the IDF is both the enforcing authority against settler violence and, at the same time, the occupying military power over the Palestinian population. The allegation from Loai Ridi that soldiers prayed alongside settlers rather than intervening, if accurate, points to the degree to which the lines between military authority and settler movement can blur on the ground. The Israeli military's own characterization of the home seizures as "illegal, reprehensible and unacceptable" and its announcement of disciplinary action against personnel filmed at the site acknowledge this tension, though the operational outcome, a withdrawal of forces after clashing with settlers, left three families still under siege as of Wednesday.
The deployment of an additional infantry battalion on the chief of general staff's orders signals an institutional response to a situation that the military itself has framed as a breakdown of operational control. Whether that reinforcement translates into effective removal of the settlers from the besieged homes is an open question, particularly given the precedent in nearby Jalud, where a prolonged siege in July ultimately resulted in the displacement of two families and settler takeover of their property Al Jazeera.
