https://arab.news/jfbhh
- Israeli forces deployed additional troops to Qusra, saying they were acting against settlers who have blocked Palestinian families inside their homes
- Palestinian residents were nevertheless ordered to evacuate their homes as the army operated in the area
QUSRA: Israeli troops took up positions inside Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra on Thursday, the mayor said, after settlers trapped Palestinian families this week in a siege Palestinians say is aimed at forcing them from their land.
Abdul Azim Wadi, mayor of Qusra, said that instead of removing the settlers, Israeli forces raided the areas where the tent is located and turned seven houses located in the centre of the village into a designated military zone.
“The army did not enter only to remove the settlers; instead, it also entered seven homes in the middle of the village,” Wadi said in a statement shared with Arab News by Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The municipality was unable to reach or assist the besieged families, the mayor noted, as Israeli settlers remain present in front of the three houses.
The siege began at the weekend when Jewish settlers closed off the road to the three homes in the Palestinian village of Qusra and set up a tent in their front yards, refusing to allow anyone to enter or leave. The settlers had earlier cut off their electricity and water.
Earlier on Thursday, Israel’s military said it had sent more troops to a West Bank village where settlers have trapped Palestinian families inside their homes.
The military says it is moving against the settlers, but an eyewitness account from a CNN correspondent at the scene offered a more complicated picture. Israeli security forces arrived in Qusra to dismantle the illegal outpost and remove the settlers, but settler reinforcements arrived and clashes ensued. Israeli forces later withdrew, while the settlers remained.
The correspondent also reported that Israeli soldiers showed up at the Palestinian homes earlier in the morning and ordered the families to evacuate, saying the move was necessary so troops could operate against the settlers in the area. The families ultimately moved into one of the three homes but did not leave the hilltop.
Israeli soldiers showed up to these homes this morning and ordered Palestinians to evacuate. The stated reason: so they can operate against the settlers in the area.
Ultimately, the families moved into 1 of the 3 homes but are not leaving the hilltop.
Monitoring - https://t.co/rld4y4lW7Q— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) August 13, 2026
Yousef Hassan, Qusra citizen and member of one of the families who were besieged, confirmed that the Israeli army has ordered them to evacuate their home.
“The army tried to remove the settlers, but unfortunately, they did not make much effort to do so. This morning, the army came and told us that we had to evacuate our home because they wanted to turn it into a military zone,” Hassan said in a statement shared with Arab News by MAP.
“We were forced to leave our home, and we are currently staying at my brother’s house, while the settlers remain in the area.”
Israel’s military says it is trying to disperse the settlers from the area, even as a video from earlier in the week showed several Israeli men in green military garb joining the settlers in a morning prayer in the tent. The military said it was taking disciplinary action against any personnel involved.
A day after troops deployed tear gas in a failed attempt to remove the settlers, the military said it had sent additional troops to Qusra “to carry out defensive missions and patrols in the area to maintain security and protect the area.”
Hassan said the family was not presented with an official or written legal order to leave the property, but was instead verbally instructed to evacuate and “forced to do so.”
The United Nations said in a statement that some 15 Palestinians, including two children, were “being trapped inside their homes in a state of terror, unable to attend to their basic needs and without access to water or electricity.”
BESIEGED FAMILIES APPEAL FOR HELP
The military has come under increasing pressure to halt rogue land seizures by settlers emboldened by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has spearheaded a rapid expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The two families under siege in the area say they have no food or medicine, and that the settlers have been damaging their property, throwing stones at their homes and shouting insulting language at them.
“We appeal to government institutions and to every free and honorable person to help us secure food and medicine,” said Qusay Abu Reeda, a Palestinian-American who is trapped with his family inside one of the homes.
The US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said the Israeli military and police “have gone at our request to remove the Israeli terrorists doing this,” adding: “The actions of those doing this to this family’s home is criminal.”
Palestinians say the Israeli military allows settlers to seize land and resources across the West Bank with impunity, including in areas where they hold Israel-issued ownership documents.
Incidents of settler land seizures are especially common in areas on the outskirts of villages, like Qusra, which sits in an area under complete Israeli security control.
Wadi said Qusra is now surrounded “from the east, south, west and north” as Israeli forces tightened their grip on the West Bank following the Oct. 7, 2023 war on Gaza.
The West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, is home to some three million Palestinians and 500,000 settlers. There are some 146 settlements in the West Bank, as well as 390 smaller outposts, according to the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now.
- With Agencies