{"id":583801,"date":"2026-08-13T20:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/583801\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T20:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:28:12","slug":"israeli-troops-force-families-from-homes-amid-settler-terror-campaign-in-west-bank-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/583801\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli troops force families from homes amid settler terror campaign in West Bank | West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli troops have forced two Palestinian families to leave their besieged West Bank<\/a> homes, the day after a top Israeli commander personally promised he would end a violent settler campaign to drive them out.<\/p>\n

Israeli soldiers also took over eight other homes in Qusra early on Thursday, telling the village\u2019s mayor, Abdul Azim Wadi, that the buildings were needed for a days-long operation to remove the settlers. They later relinquished six. Settlers still roam the village.<\/p>\n

The Palestinians\u2019 ordeal began on Sunday when Israeli settlers and soldiers set up a tent blocking the entrance to three homes on the edge of the village. They severed water and electricity supplies and prevented an ambulance from reaching a sick toddler.<\/p>\n

Amid mounting international pressure over the siege, Maj Gen Avi Bluth, who commands all Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, visited Qusra on Wednesday to meet the trapped Palestinians and committed<\/a> to \u201cevacuate\u201d the settlers from the village.<\/p>\n

Israeli soldiers stand guard next to settlers in front of Palestinian houses in the village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. Photograph: Zain Jaafar\/AFP\/Getty<\/p>\n

Bluth\u2019s troops later removed the tent but left the militants, their bedding and other equipment. Soldiers retreated after a failed attempt to drive out the Israeli settler group with riot control techniques. The siege continued into a fifth day on Thursday, with the impact on the village only expanding after Bluth\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe army arrived at around 10am and asked us to evacuate the houses because of a military operation in the area that would last for three days. We refused to leave,\u201d said Qusai Ridi, one of the besieged Palestinians. \u201cThe army then moved us all into one house.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was allowed to return home in the afternoon, where he found Israeli soldiers had damaged a security camera system and stolen some equipment. They are still occupying the home of his neighbour Yousef Hassan, who is staying with Ridi.<\/p>\n

Settlers are still patrolling outside in the area where 28-year-old Amir Moatasem Odeh was killed<\/a> by a settler in March. Another attacker stabbed his father. No one has been arrested over the murder and assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am afraid and do not trust that the army will actually evacuate the settlers. But I sincerely hope they do,\u201d Ridi said.<\/p>\n

Critics in Israel say a lack of will on the part of soldiers in Qusra has led to the siege continuing. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty<\/p>\n

His brother is an American citizen, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee<\/a>, who is generally supportive of Israel\u2019s settlement project, described the siege as a \u201chorrific act of terror\u201d carried out by Israeli terrorists.<\/p>\n

On Thursday afternoon, Israeli soldiers left six homes they had taken over in the morning. The returning Palestinian families reported damage including a Qur\u2019an with pages torn out and destroyed decorations.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s former prime minister Ehud Olmert<\/a> said the siege was a \u201cconcerted and meticulous attempt at ethnic cleansing\u201d, which left him disgusted and ashamed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are crimes against humanity which are actively supported by the Israeli government and are assisted by the indifference and total lack of action by the IDF and the Israeli police. It\u2019s unforgettable and unforgivable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same terror tactics<\/a> were used to force another Palestinian family out of their home in the neighbouring village of Jalud in July. Soldiers and settlers were filmed playing with a football together on the terrace of that house on Thursday.<\/p>\n

An Israeli military spokesperson said soldiers had been ordered not to displace Palestinian residents of Qusra and would not operate inside the besieged homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe soldiers were instructed that the Qusra residents will remain in their homes,\u201d the military said in a statement. The spokesperson declined to comment on why those orders were being violated.<\/p>\n

The chief of the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Eyal Zamir, has ordered a battalion of infantry reservists back from leave to reinforce troops in the West Bank. Domestic critics said the army\u2019s failures in Qusra were more the result of a lack of will than shortage of forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s events in Qusra illustrate the impotence of the IDF, the police, the GSS [Shin Bet] and other security organizations in the face of a group of bullies,\u201d the commentator Avi Ashkenazi wrote in the Israeli newspaper Ma\u2019ariv.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of bringing a police van [and] arresting the criminals \u2026 [security forces] have been trying to negotiate with them. They are thugs. They believe themselves to be the lords of the land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israeli militants target Palestinians with near total impunity<\/a> in the occupied West Bank. Since 2020, Israeli civilians and soldiers have killed more than 1,100 Palestinians there, and there has been only one indictment<\/a> over those deaths.<\/p>\n

Violence is deployed<\/a> as part of a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing. Israel has forcibly displaced 64 Palestinian communities over the past three years, the rights group B\u2019Tselem said. Fifteen other communities have lost residents, with more than 4,800 people driven from their homes.<\/p>\n

Sufian Taha contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli troops have forced two Palestinian families to leave their besieged West Bank homes, the day after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-583801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}