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Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, on Thursday condemned a siege by Israeli settlers of a Palestinian American family’s home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, calling it a “horrific act of terror.”
Since Sunday, according to local officials and family members, settlers have gathered near the home in the village of Qusra and harassed those inside, defying efforts by the Israeli military to defuse the situation.
A group, which has included up to dozens of men, has thrown stones, attempted to bring down a stone wall nearby and prevented the occupants from leaving despite dwindling supplies.
Qusai Abu Rida, who had holed up in the house with his teenage son to defend it, said on Thursday morning they have since been moved by Israel’s military to another home but still cannot leave the area.
The Israeli military declined to confirm whether it relocated any residents.
Speaking to The Associated Press by phone from his other home in Ohio, the home’s owner, Loui Ridi, said that settlers have been targeting his Qusra residence for months before the situation escalated in recent days.
“We are prisoners in our own house, hostages in our own house,” he said.
Spate of violence
Huckabee said that Israeli military and police “have gone at our request to remove the Israeli terrorists doing this.”
“Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting,” he said.
Mike Huckabee, U.S. ambassador to Israel, is shown in Jerusalem on Aug. 20, 2025. (Ohad Zwigenberg/The Associated Press)
Huckabee is a longtime ally of Israel’s settler movement and in the past has expressed support for Israeli control over the occupied West Bank while condemning settler violence.
Qusra Mayor Abed Al Athem Wadi said that six homes in the village had been evacuated and taken over by Israeli soldiers, including three besieged hilltop homes.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned actions it said were “clearly aimed” at forcing residents to leave “their homes and their land.”
The Canadian government is among those which consider the expansion of West Bank settlements illegal under international law.
The settlements are also considered illegal under Israeli law, though the response of the government to their expansion has varied in recent years.
Israeli troops have intervened in recent days to try to restore order. The Israeli military said that overnight Thursday its troops had dismantled “two illegal outposts” on the outskirts of Qusra and a nearby village, and detained one Israeli. It added that additional soldiers had surged to the area, which is about 16 kilometres from the city of Nablus, to “carry out defensive missions and patrols.”
Journalists on the outskirts of Qusra said roads into the village were closed.
In recent weeks, human rights groups and foreign governments, including Canada’s, have condemned a continued increase in Israeli settler violence.
Palestinians and the Israeli opposition accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of turning a blind eye to attacks by settlers.
Israel’s military condemned the siege as “illegal, reprehensible, and unacceptable” on Tuesday and declared the area a closed military zone. But by Wednesday, dozens of settlers had returned and begun to block the road with rocks.
WATCH | Last month’s deadly incident:
IDF launches West Bank operation after 4 Palestinians, 2 Israeli soldiers killed
Four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in Tal, a village near Nablus in the occupied West Bank. The Israel Defense Forces have sealed off the village and say they are preparing for major military action.
Qusra is in one of the most violent pockets of the northern West Bank, surrounded by settlements.
Last month, a mosque there was set on fire in another apparent settler attack. That followed the killing of an Israeli settler, which triggered violence that left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian villagers dead.
Settlers have been building more outposts — in an effort condemned by many in the international community as aimed at dismantling any remaining hopes of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, as part of a future state. Many settlers and their supporters say the entire area should belong to Israel for historical, religious and security reasons.