{"id":606668,"date":"2026-09-05T11:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/606668\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:36:22","slug":"qusra-family-home-remains-under-siege-we-are-heading-toward-escalation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/606668\/","title":{"rendered":"Qusra family home remains under siege: ‘We are heading toward escalation’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took us a little more than half an hour to cover a route that should have taken no more than two minutes.<\/p>\n

Moments after leaving the center of the Palestinian village of Qusra<\/a> and beginning the climb up the road leading to the besieged home of Louay Abu Rida, we stopped in front of a roadblock manned by Border Police troops. We counted three white Toyota Hilux pickup trucks and two brown jeeps blocking the road. One of the officers approached our vehicle and asked what we were doing there.\"\u05d0\u05d1\u05d5\u05be\u05e8\u05d9\u05d3\u05d0<\/a>\"\u05d0\u05d1\u05d5\u05be\u05e8\u05d9\u05d3\u05d0<\/p>\n

Abu Rida on the roof in Qusra <\/p>\n

(Photo: Shaul Golan)<\/p>\n

The violent attack in Qusra last Saturday <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Qusra is a Palestinian village in Area B, southeast of Nablus, just before the descent toward the Jordan Valley. In recent weeks, it has made headlines not only in Israel but around the world.<\/p>\n

One might ask what happened in Qusra that has not happened elsewhere in the West Bank. After all, relentless violent raids, attacks and what Palestinians describe as daily terror by extremist hilltop settlers against Palestinian communities and villages accelerated immediately after the war began on October 7, 2023, and have continued ever since.<\/p>\n

The specific case is not new either. The method of setting up an outpost in or near the yard of a Palestinian family\u2019s home, then subjecting the residents to harassment and attacks around the clock in an effort to break them and force them to leave so settlers can take control of the property, has been used successfully elsewhere.<\/p>\n

It happened not far from here, in the village of Jalud, where the Tubasi family was driven from its home by the same method. Reporters and television crews from around the world did not descend on that village.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the reason Qusra has attracted so much attention has to do with the homeowner at the center of the affair.<\/p>\n

Abu Rida is an American citizen who speaks fluent English, making him an effective spokesman before the international media. When settlers began laying siege to his home more than three weeks ago, he was at his home in Ohio. Several days later, with assistance from the U.S. Embassy, he arrived in the village and quickly hung an American flag from the roof.<\/p>\n

A Palestinian home under attack and siege by settlers, with the Stars and Stripes flying from its roof, was something new.<\/p>\n

The roadblock lasted about half an hour.<\/p>\n

The first officer who approached us wanted to know who we were. After a series of questions and answers, he warned us that the area was extremely volatile and that if violence suddenly erupted, we would find ourselves alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t be there to get you out,\u201d he warned, then asked again: \u201cAre you sure you want to go up there alone?\u201d<\/p>\n

About 15 minutes later, we underwent another round of questioning, this time by a man in civilian clothes who showed us a police ID. He was part of the Border Police force, though only later would we learn what the unit was doing in the area.<\/p>\n

They took our identification cards, checked over the radio, waited for a response and eventually said there was no problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go up,\u201d they told us, \u201cbut it\u2019s your responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

As noted, what is happening in Qusra is not unusual.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of 2026, an outpost called Tel Talpiot was established on the mountain above the village center. Like it, dozens of other outposts have been established and continue to spring up across the West Bank.<\/p>\n

The mountain, Jabal Ein Eina, is the highest in the area and among the highest points in the West Bank. Settlers attach great importance to it because of the commanding view it offers over the surrounding area.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the outpost was established, residents of nearby villages \u2014 Jalud, Talfit and Qusra \u2014 began reporting daily attacks by settlers, often masked.<\/p>\n

Most of the attacks were documented in real time on cellphones and security cameras, and in many cases the Palestinians who said they had been attacked also filed police complaints.<\/p>\n

\"\u05d4\u05d1\u05d9\u05ea<\/a>\"\u05d4\u05d1\u05d9\u05ea<\/p>\n

The besieged house <\/p>\n

(Photo: Shaul Golan)<\/p>\n

Oded Fafurish, an activist with a group that provides a protective presence for Palestinians in the West Bank, said that in mid-February, as attacks by settlers from the outpost on Qusra residents intensified, villagers asked his group for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked us to come and provide a protective presence because even then the attacks were already very intense and had caused one family in the village to leave its home,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got there on Friday, Feb. 27, the day before the big war with Iran began. It was me, Yael Levkovitz and Adi Cohen Harari. We went to show solidarity with a family whose home settlers had entered and ransacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the residents asked us to come with him to see damage done to a house he was building on the road up the mountain. When we got there, I went inside with two village residents while Yael and Adi stayed outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin minutes, four masked settlers arrived on an ATV. They had wooden clubs and began beating both women. Adi was struck very hard in the head and collapsed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard the screams, I came out of the house and the attackers began chasing me. They caught me, knocked me to the ground and beat me with clubs. I suffered four comminuted fractures in my right hand, broken ribs and a deep cut in my eyebrow above the eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdi was critically injured. She lost consciousness and there was serious concern for her life. If Yael had not insisted with Magen David Adom and the police that they come evacuate her \u2014 really insisted, shouting at them \u2014 she would not have survived.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u05de\u05ea\u05e0\u05d7\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd<\/a>\"\u05de\u05ea\u05e0\u05d7\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd<\/p>\n

Masked settlers in Qusra; Maj. Gen. Bluth\u2019s order has not deterred them <\/p>\n

Two weeks later, settlers again raided homes in the village.<\/p>\n

It happened during the war with Iran, when warnings of ballistic missile attacks were sending large parts of Israel into bomb shelters several times a day.<\/p>\n

During the violent raid on March 14, several residents tried to confront the settlers and push them out of the village. In response, several armed settlers opened fire, killing 28-year-old Amir Odeh and wounding his father, Muatasem, who was left disabled.<\/p>\n

Qusra residents say the army and police have evacuated the outpost several times.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut every time, after an hour or two, the settlers go back and rebuild their tent and shed and bring a few goats and sheep, and this situation continues nonstop, day after day,\u201d said village council head Wadi Abd al-Azim.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deep inside Area B. This is territory under Palestinian civilian responsibility. Anyone who builds here receives approval from Palestinian authorities. Israel is responsible only for security \u2014 including our security, as Palestinians \u2014 but construction is our responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis area on Jabal Ein Eina belongs to Qusra. The settlers have no business being there. They come and cut water pipes and electricity cables, they took control of a spring, they attack people\u2019s homes so they will flee. They are making our lives hell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have repeatedly contacted the Palestinian District Coordination Office so it can approach the Israeli DCO. We contacted the army, the Civil Administration, the Israeli police \u2014 we have appealed to everyone in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince January we have approached everyone we possibly could, but it does not help. The settlers do whatever they want and the army works with them and does not stop them from harming us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 40 young men from the village in prison since the settlers began attacking us, and not one of the settlers attacking us has been arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u05d0\u05dc\u05be\u05e2\u05d3\u05d9\u05dd.<\/a>\"\u05d0\u05dc\u05be\u05e2\u05d3\u05d9\u05dd.<\/p>\n

Al-Azim <\/p>\n

(Photo: Shaul Golan)<\/p>\n

The hilltop activists have a strategist who lays out policy and identifies targets. His name is Elisha Yered, and he is highly active on social media.<\/p>\n

After efforts to take control of areas in Area C and drive Bedouin communities from them, Yered identified a new objective: settlement in Areas B and A.<\/p>\n

On the night of Aug. 9, several settlers descended from the outpost at the top of the mountain and erected a makeshift shelter in front of the Abu Rida family home.<\/p>\n

The house stands on the outskirts of Qusra, not quite at the summit but close to it. Two other homes belonging to the Hassan family are nearby.<\/p>\n

From that moment, residents said they could not so much as stick their heads outside without being met by a barrage of stones.<\/p>\n

The IDF arrived but, according to the residents, made little effort to remove the settlers. A siege was imposed on the house, and the videos filmed by Louay\u2019s brothers, Wafiq and Qusai, made no difference.<\/p>\n

The army declared the area around the besieged homes a closed military zone, barring anyone from entering.<\/p>\n

During the first days after the army arrived, settlers remained in the area, while Israeli activists who wanted to visit the besieged family and bring them food were barred from entering.<\/p>\n

As international attention grew and the U.S. administration began condemning the situation and demanding answers about what was happening on the mountain above Qusra, the settlers were also moved away \u2014 though only from the immediate vicinity of the house, not from the mountain as a whole.<\/p>\n

We were now in the home of Saddam Odeh, below which stood the Border Police vehicles that had blocked us from driving up the mountain.<\/p>\n

Odeh\u2019s house sits at the beginning of the road leading to Abu Rida\u2019s besieged home and is covered by security cameras providing a 360-degree view.<\/p>\n

Last Saturday, Louay Beiruti, another village resident, asked Odeh to accompany him to the shell of a house he is building farther up the mountain.<\/p>\n

It was at Beiruti\u2019s house that Fafurish, Cohen Harari and Levkovitz had been attacked about six months earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeiruti wanted to put metal grilles over the windows and doors because settlers enter his house and destroy the equipment and building materials there,\u201d Odeh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were seven workers with Beiruti, and a few minutes after we arrived, three settlers came on an ATV. They saw that we were working and it drove them crazy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey filmed us and went up to a four-story building that is also under construction, above Beiruti\u2019s house. They waited there for their friends to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling you, within 15 minutes maybe 70 settlers came down from the mountain. They came on foot and in pickup trucks and started throwing rocks at us inside the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were accompanied by settler-soldiers\u201d \u2014 a reference to local defense troops \u2014 \u201cwho fired two tear-gas grenades into the house. We started choking and went up to the roof, where the air was open and we could breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u05e1\u05d3\u05d0\u05dd<\/a>\"\u05e1\u05d3\u05d0\u05dd<\/p>\n

Saddam Odeh <\/p>\n

(Photo: Shaul Golan)<\/p>\n

The entire incident was documented on cellphones by residents watching from a distance and on security cameras mounted on homes.<\/p>\n

After footage of pickup trucks filled with masked settlers circulated around the world, settlers said they had been attacked first and that the large group had merely arrived as reinforcements to rescue settlers who had been ambushed with stones by Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Such defenses by settlers are familiar, Odeh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are always the victim,\u201d he said. \u201cEven the police say the settlers are lying.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you know that is what the police say?
\n\u201cThey took testimony from me about what happened. And just before you arrived, Border Police officers were here at my house. They came in a large force to take the DVR from the cameras.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them, \u2018You could have sent one person and I would have gladly given it to him. We want you to see what the cameras recorded.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, now it is Tuesday and the incident was Saturday. Look how long it took them to come get the footage. If it were the other way around, if Palestinians had gone into a settlement, they would have come to collect it in less than an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least, as far as you are concerned, Saturday\u2019s incident ended safely.
\nOdeh frowned. \u201cWe were hit by rocks and one of us could not breathe on the roof. Eventually soldiers arrived and we said to one another, \u2018Finally, the regular army is here. They\u2019ll get us out of here alive.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cNot two minutes passed before soldiers came up to the roof, tied our hands behind our backs with plastic restraints and blindfolded us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe man who had trouble breathing begged them not to restrain him, and they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey threw us into a military vehicle and we had no idea where it was going. Inside the village, you can drive maybe 200 meters. But they took us to the entrance to Duma, a village about a 10-minute drive from here, and dumped us on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore they left, they told the man who had trouble breathing to count to 60 and then release us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IDF said the Palestinians were detained because of stone-throwing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the Israeli rioters fled the area, the forces handcuffed several Palestinians,\u201d the military said. \u201cAccording to the force at the scene, one of them resisted, leading to proportionate force being used against him. The suspects were taken for questioning and released a short time later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council head Abd al-Azim added: \u201cThe attacks intensified from the beginning of the year with the new settlement. Altogether, we have been surrounded by 16 new settlements\u201d \u2014 farms and outposts.<\/p>\n

\u201cA settlement like that can consist of just one tent. It is enough to have three or four men there with a few goats or sheep, and that\u2019s it. The most serious attacks come from places like these.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our village, four homes were completely burned. Seven homes were partially burned and badly damaged, and 18 vehicles were burned and declared total losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey also burned two mosques and three businesses. The biggest property damage was in the chicken-coop area at the southern edge of the village.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 11 large chicken coops there, and four were burned. Three of them contained a total of 30,000 chickens. They all burned to death. The structures themselves and the water and electricity systems were badly damaged.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of fear, nobody in the village goes near that area anymore. And we don\u2019t have insurance, so nobody here received a single shekel in compensation for the damage caused by the settlers.<\/p>\n

\u201cA dunam of land here was worth 6,000 dinars in 2011, and by 2023 it had climbed to 40,000 dinars. Now nobody would take a dunam here even for free. For free.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed toward the mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to eliminate us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u05d4\u05e9\u05d9\u05d9\u05d7'<\/a>\"\u05d4\u05e9\u05d9\u05d9\u05d7'<\/p>\n

Sheikh Odeh <\/p>\n

(Photo: Shaul Golan)<\/p>\n

We sat in the village council office. Sheikh Ziad Odeh, imam of one of the village mosques and a fluent Hebrew speaker from the days when he worked in Israel, joined the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sounding a warning to normal Israelis, and I know they are the majority in Israel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to know what is happening here. They will not be able to say, \u2018We didn\u2019t know,\u2019 because these things are already known around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is happening in Qusra is not happening only in Qusra. It is happening in all the villages in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day that passes pushes people closer to the edge. There is a limit to how much suffering people can endure.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have no work, and the settlers have taken our agricultural land or do not allow us to go out and work it. We have lost 70% of Qusra\u2019s agricultural land. The settlers have taken control of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWherever you go, there are problems. So patience has an end.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe settlers hurt people, and the government is with them, the army is with them, the police are with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone saw what happened in the village of Tell when settlers went in there. Sheikh Farouk\u201d \u2014 Farouk Ramadan, who seized the weapon of Binyahu Malt, deputy security coordinator of Havat Gilad, and used it to kill Malt and Maj. Yuval Ezra \u2014 \u201ccouldn\u2019t take it anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will happen in other places. I am sure it will happen. It will happen because people have nothing left to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are in a corner, on the edge. We in Qusra are already at the edge. We have nothing left to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are heading toward a very serious escalation. Once someone enters your home, what are you left to do? You have to defend yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

After warning us against going up the mountain, the Border Police officers got into their vehicles with the DVR taken from Odeh\u2019s home and left.<\/p>\n

We drove slowly uphill and passed Beiruti\u2019s house, which dozens of masked settlers had attacked Saturday.<\/p>\n

None of them was detained at the scene. Only yesterday, nearly a week later, was the first suspect arrested.<\/p>\n

Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, head of the IDF Central Command, signed a military order a year ago prohibiting people from covering their faces in public areas of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

The order applies to all civilians, Jews and Palestinians, and is intended to address the difficulty of identifying rioters involved in disturbances and nationalist crimes.<\/p>\n

Violating the order is punishable by up to six months in prison, but it has not deterred hilltop extremists. They continue to move through and attack Palestinian villages while masked.<\/p>\n

What reason would they have to obey the order when the soldiers themselves do not enforce it on the ground?<\/p>\n

The army had set up a shade canopy about 50 meters from Abu Rida\u2019s house. When we arrived there at midday Tuesday, two female reservists were stationed beneath it.<\/p>\n

They did not allow us to approach the house, saying that a closed military zone order applied from the canopy to the house compound.<\/p>\n

That is the situation now: It is no longer the settlers imposing a siege on the house at the top of the mountain in Qusra, but the army.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that you over there in the white car?\u201d Louay Abu Rida asked us by phone, waving his hand.<\/p>\n

We said yes and waved back. He did not sound well.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the absurd situation we are living in,\u201d he said. \u201cI am locked inside my own home, under siege, unable to leave or have people come to me. It is a nightmare.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is the 25th day of the siege on the house. The military checkpoint prevents us from leaving and returning to the house freely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe siege is total. Today, after three or four days of coordination, we managed to bring up a pickup truck with food and medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling you, we coordinated this delivery with the Palestinian side, the Civil Administration, the Israeli DCO, the Israeli army, everyone we needed to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, when the truck arrived, they allowed it to drive up, but the female soldiers at the checkpoint before the house stopped it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said nobody had coordinated with them. They did not know a delivery was supposed to arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they agreed to let three of us leave the house and carry the boxes of food and medicine ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did it in several trips in the heavy heat \u2014 me, my brother Wafiq and the neighbor\u2019s father.\u201d<\/p>\n

You appealed to Israel\u2019s Supreme Court and you are in contact with the U.S. Embassy. Can you estimate when this nightmare will end?
\n\u201cWe filed a petition asking the Israeli court to order the army to prevent settlers from approaching our homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court asked the state to respond and explain what it intends to do to allow us to return to normal life.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, nobody from the embassy has come to see what is happening here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am an American citizen. My mother has a green card. We are entitled to American protection, but aside from condemnations, I have heard nothing from the administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI very much hope your court will help, that the world will intervene, that America will exert pressure, that something will happen and we can get out of this situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWait, wait. The embassy is calling me. I have to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Millie from the embassy in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

We could not hear the entire conversation, except for a reference to a digital form he needed to fill out.<\/p>\n

We called him again afterward and he sounded disappointed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was about some procedural matter,\u201d he said, \u201cnothing that will help us get out of this terrible situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the report, the IDF said:<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past month, reinforced IDF and Border Police forces have been deployed in the area of Qusra village in the Samaria Brigade in order to prevent friction and the entry of Israeli rioters into the area and to respond to every report of a disturbance.<\/p>\n

\u201cA closed military zone order was imposed in the area in order to protect the families and to enforce the law and prevent lawbreakers from reaching it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, and for their protection, it is not possible to enter or move through the area of the homes without coordination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family is in contact with IDF representatives, and eight entries have been coordinated over the past two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took us a little more than half an hour to cover a route that should have taken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-606668","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\/606668","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=606668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}