Middle East

Israeli settlers besiege Palestinian homes in Qusra

IDF chief orders reserve battalion reinforcement after commander visit fails to lift blockade, tent removed but families remain trapped

Images

Refqa Hassan watches as Israeli settlers besiege her family home for the fourth consecutive day in the town of Qusra. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA Refqa Hassan watches as Israeli settlers besiege her family home for the fourth consecutive day in the town of Qusra. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA theguardian.com
Israeli soldiers stand guard next to settlers in front of Palestinian homes that they have blockaded in the village of Qusra. Photograph: Nidal Eshtayeh/AP Israeli soldiers stand guard next to settlers in front of Palestinian homes that they have blockaded in the village of Qusra. Photograph: Nidal Eshtayeh/AP theguardian.com
Yousef Hassan said Israeli settlers throw stones, use obscene language and shout during the night. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA Yousef Hassan said Israeli settlers throw stones, use obscene language and shout during the night. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA theguardian.com
An Israeli settler leads his sheep as settlers besiege a Palestinian home. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA An Israeli settler leads his sheep as settlers besiege a Palestinian home. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA theguardian.com

Two Palestinian families in the West Bank village of Qusra have been trapped in their homes for days after Israeli settlers set up a tent outside one house and blocked access to both properties, The Guardian reports. The paper says water and electricity were cut, stones were thrown at night, and an ambulance was prevented from reaching a sick child until the family’s mother and daughters were evacuated.

The episode is being described locally not as a sudden riot but as a method. According to The Guardian, similar pressure was used in the nearby village of Jalud, where a Palestinian family left in July after a months-long siege that ended with settlers taking over the home. In Qusra, the settlers gathered near the site where a Palestinian man was killed by a settler in March; his father was later stabbed, and The Guardian reports no arrests have been made over the killing or assault. The absence of consequences matters because it lowers the cost of repetition: if the practical risk is limited to brief scuffles and temporary dispersal, a siege becomes a tool for altering property control without formal expropriation.

Israel’s security apparatus is now trying to show it still governs its own side. The Guardian reports that Gen Avi Bluth, the regional commander, visited on Wednesday morning and promised to lift the siege, after which soldiers removed the tent but left bedding and other belongings behind. After brief clashes, soldiers withdrew, and settlers remained in front of the house, leaving the family still unable to leave, according to the paper. An Israeli military spokesperson told The Guardian commanders were “gravely concerned” and that soldiers supporting settlers would face disciplinary action, but gave no timeline for ending the blockade.

By the evening, the story had moved up the chain of command. The Guardian reports that Israel’s chief of general staff, Eyal Zamir, met senior commanders and ordered an infantry reserve battalion back from leave to reinforce forces in the West Bank, with additional soldiers on standby. Reinforcement is an admission that the current posture is not deterring the behaviour it is meant to police. It also shifts the burden of “restoring order” onto conscripts and reservists while the underlying property dispute continues, and while police investigations—promised again in the latest statement—compete with the political reality that settlers are a powerful constituency.

In Qusra, soldiers removed a tent and then left. The families remained behind locked doors, waiting to see whether the next visit from the authorities comes with an exit route or another promise.