QUSRA, West Bank: Israeli military operations to remove extremist settlers encircling three homes on a hilltop in Qusra are “just a performance,” the village’s mayor told Arab News, as 15 Palestinians remain trapped in a siege in its sixth day.
Abdul Azim Wadi said Thursday’s operation marked the ninth time the Israeli military had evacuated the same settler outpost on Ras Al-Ain Mountain in the past seven months, only for settlers to re-establish it within hours.
“If the army really wanted to stop the settlers, they would have arrested them and put up signs blocking settlers from entering the area classified as Palestinian under Oslo accords,” Wadi told Arab News over the phone.
“However, we are unfortunately witnessing coordination between some of the soldiers and the settlers.”
The siege began on Sunday when Jewish settlers set up a tent in the front yards of three homes in the Palestinian village of Qusra, southeast of Nablus, blocking the only road to the hilltop and refusing to allow anyone to enter or leave.
The settlers had cut off their electricity and water in a siege Palestinians say is aimed at forcing them from their land.
Wadi said the settlers were still in the area and kept coming back, despite military operations to remove them.
In its latest statement, the IDF said the settler tent was dismantled on Thursday. Dozens of troops were deployed into Qusra and occupied eight village homes from the morning before families were allowed to return later around 7 p.m., according to the mayor.
Israeli forces on Thursday moved against rogue settlers laying siege to Palestinians amid unusually strong US criticism, even as Israel inaugurated an emblematic settlement elsewhere in the West Bank. (File/AFP)
He noted that the soldiers are still deployed in the area, blocking off the municipality from reaching the homes and delivering aid.
Wadi confirmed to Arab News that the soldiers blocked around 70 Palestinian, Israeli and foreign activists carrying aid to the besieged families from reaching the houses.
Video footage on social media also showed journalists were turned back from entering the site, which soldiers called “a closed military zone,” while settlers were seen in the area.
The municipality could last deliver food, water and medicines to the besieged families on Tuesday in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“Now we are coordinating with international humanitarian organizations to get aid and main supplies to the families, but we haven’t received approval until today,” the mayor said.
The UN has said some 15 Palestinians, including two children, were trapped inside their homes with no running water or electricity.
Palestinians and activists arrive to protest against Israeli settlers besieging a Palestinian family home in the village of Qusra, south of the city Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Friday, nearly a week after the settlers began blockading the area defying attempts by the Israeli military to remove them. (File/AFP)
The Israeli troops, which were sent to end the siege, have evacuated one of the houses belonging to Yousef Hasan, who moved with his family to his brother’s house.
The siege is the latest episode in a wave of settler violence convulsing the occupied West Bank as they try to drive Palestinians off their land amid the rapid expansion of settlements under the current right-wing Israeli government.
All settlements are illegal under international law.
Wadi said the blockade was part of “a clear and systematic pattern” of violence witnessed in Qusra after the Oct. 7 war on Gaza in a wider campaign in the West Bank.
The attacks on the families on Ras Al-Ain Mountain started in December when the outpost was first installed.
“Settlers cut off the water and electricity more than six or seven times since December. We have restored them each time, but the settlers have returned and cut them again,” the mayor said.
Since Oct. 7, Israeli troops and settlers have tightened the grip on the village, which is now "is currently surrounded from the east, south, west and north” by outposts, checkpoints and road closures.
Qusra’s blockade drew condemnation from senior Israeli figures, the US and France as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained silent.
Palestinians and human rights group accused the Israeli military of allowing settlers to act with impunity.
All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which has been occupied since 1967, are illegal under international law, with Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank gripped by almost daily violence involving Israeli troops and settlers since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. (File/Reuters)
On Friday, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz called for the police to take over law enforcement in the occupied West Bank from the military.
Wadi said the takeover changes nothing on the ground for Palestinians nor ensures their safety.
“Whether it is the army or the police, the Palestinian citizen remains the victim of an occupying power. Both the army and police serve this occupying government,” Wadi told Arab News.
He accused the Israeli government of violating all international agreements, emboldening settlers who act with complete impunity, under the protection of Israeli forces, without fear of being held accountable.
“Settlers are pressuring residents in Qusra to starve them of their land and take over their homes. They are burning mosques, cutting trees and stealing livestock,” the mayor said.
“This is a serious escalation we have been witnessing for the past three years and it is leading to us to a scary future,” said Wadi, referring to the gradual Israeli takeover of the occupied West Bank, which would make up the main part of a future Palestinian state.
Under the 1995 Oslo II Accords, the West Bank is divided into Areas A, B and C, with Area C administered by Israel. Area B, home to around 1 million Palestinians, is administered by the Palestinian Authority with shared security control with Israel.
While settlements have mainly been focused in Area C, the recent expansion of outposts and construction are now reaching Area B. According to the Israeli human rights organization Peace Now, 26 outposts have been established in Area B over the past two and a half years.
Qusra is in Area B, where settlers have expelled at least 19 Palestinian communities or clusters, according to Peace Now.
Activists attempted to deliver supplies to Palestinians under an almost week-long Israeli settler siege in the West Bank on August 14, with the Israeli military again deployed at the flashpoint site. (File/AFP)
“The three homes are in Area B, which, under Oslo accords, is an internationally recognized Palestinian even in the presence of the occupation,” Wadi said.
“But Israel’s actions show they don’t want the Oslo accords.”
He said the international condemnation is not enough in stopping the “dangerous escalation.”
“The Palestinians are victims to the international agreements that were never implemented on the ground,” the mayor said, noting that condemnations fell short of breaking the three families’ siege.
“A future and hope for the Palestinians where they can live in safety and peace can only be achieved with a serious international interference and supervision to preserve agreements.”
