{"id":607901,"date":"2026-09-06T18:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/607901\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T18:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:48:10","slug":"three-palestinian-families-to-return-to-their-homes-in-the-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/607901\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Palestinian families to return to their homes in the West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court of Justice<\/a> ordered Israeli authorities on Sunday to arrange within 14 days for three Palestinian petitioners and their families to return to their homes in the West Bank<\/a> village of Jalud, after months of nationalist violence by Israeli extremists drove residents out and left the houses open to repeated takeover.<\/p>\n

The order requires the IDF<\/a> and police to protect the families as they return and allow them to bring in supplies needed to repair the homes and restore water and electricity. Updates to the court are due by September 22.<\/p>\n

The justices also issued a conditional order requiring the state to explain why it has not restored the residents to their homes and removed barriers from the access roads. A sworn response is due by October 8.<\/p>\n

The decision moves the case beyond the state\u2019s general promise to coordinate the families\u2019 return and requires concrete action and detailed answers about investigations that have produced few visible results so far.<\/p>\n

The court said the state largely did not dispute the central sequence of events.<\/p>\n

How an unauthorized outpost led to a de facto siege on Palestinian families<\/p>\n

The case concerns an unauthorized outpost known as Givat Hatzmabarim (short in Hebrew for tzamig bo\u2019er, which translates to \u201cburning tire\u201d), established on April 19 inside Area B<\/a> near Jalud, south of Nablus. Area B is under Palestinian<\/a> civilian administration, while Israel retains overall security responsibility.<\/p>\n

According to the petition, the outpost\u2019s establishment was followed by more than four months of incursions, threats, stone-throwing, roadblocks and damage to the residents\u2019 property and infrastructure. The petitioners said attackers cut their water line, uprooted trees, grazed livestock on their land, set fire to a family vehicle, and blocked the road to their homes with large rocks.<\/p>\n

On July 22, the first two petitioners and their families left their homes after what the court described as a prolonged de facto siege. Intruders then broke through a wall of one house and smashed its doors and windows. The third petitioner\u2019s house was also used as a place for members of the group to stay.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Israeli settler sits on the roof of the Palestinian Salameh family house, which was taken over by Israeli settlers in the village of Jalud (credit: REUTERS\/ALI SAWAFTA)<\/p>\n

The three Palestinian petitioners and their families have not returned.<\/p>\n

More than two weeks later, the military issued a seizure order and removed the intruders from the first house. They moved to the second house, and when soldiers removed them from there, they moved to the third, according to the decision.<\/p>\n

The petitioners submitted video showing soldiers and the intruders playing soccer together in the courtyard of one of the houses. An IDF officer told the court that the soldiers were reinforcements who had not been properly briefed on the relevant orders and had since been removed from combat duties.<\/p>\n

When the military left the first two houses on or around August 24, the intruders returned that same day and unloaded equipment and supplies near an army vehicle, according to video described in the ruling. The parties disagree over whether they resumed living inside the homes.<\/p>\n

The state told the court that it had conducted eight enforcement operations against the outpost, declared the area a closed military zone, reinforced the troops stationed there and initiated patrols. It also pointed to new procedures, dedicated Border Police<\/a> forces, administrative exclusion orders and a task force established to address nationalist crime.<\/p>\n

Authorities said enforcement is repeatedly frustrated because suspects scatter before forces arrive, mobilize large groups to obstruct operations and submit false reports intended to divert the troops.<\/p>\n

Authorities detain four Israelis carrying clubs, knives, pepper spray<\/p>\n

The state also cited two specific incidents. On May 5, security forces stopped a vehicle carrying four identified Israelis, construction materials, two clubs, two knives, and two containers of pepper spray. Authorities took one person to the Ariel police station. On August 23, forces arrested another Israeli near the outpost and transferred him to police.<\/p>\n

The state asked the court to dismiss the petition, arguing that the military commander was acting within the resources available and that no permanent force could be stationed at the homes.<\/p>\n

The justices were not persuaded that the measures described had produced effective enforcement.<\/p>\n

Israeli authorities had the names and identification numbers of people found at the outpost, as well as vehicle registration details and extensive photographic evidence, the court said. The state nevertheless gave no answer when asked what enforcement action had been taken against those identified or why vehicles used in the activity had not been seized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe picture that emerges is very grim,\u201d the court said, adding that there were many questions but few satisfactory answers.<\/p>\n

\"PalestinianPalestinian Mohammad Salameh, owner of house that was taken by Israeli settlers in village of Jalud, reacts during an interview with Reuters at his house in al-Auja village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank July 2, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/ALI SAWAFTA)<\/p>\n

The judges said the military\u2019s measures largely consisted of revised procedures, troop adjustments and limited improvements in enforcing administrative orders. What remained missing was criminal enforcement – the \u201cfinishing leg,\u201d as a brigade operations officer described it during the hearing.<\/p>\n

While police are responsible for criminal investigations, the court stressed that overall responsibility rests with the military commander, who is required to protect all residents living under Israeli military control.<\/p>\n

The case reaches the court amid a broader increase in nationalist violence against Palestinians and a persistently low rate of prosecution.<\/p>\n

Police figures obtained by the Movement for Freedom of Information recorded 779 complaints in 2025 in a category covering nationalist offenses against Palestinians and offenses attributed to Jewish extremists. The published figures said 307 investigation files were opened and 52 indictments were filed that year, although the indictments were not necessarily connected to complaints submitted during the same period.<\/p>\n

Yesh Din, which tracks a separate group of complaints involving ideologically motivated offenses against Palestinians, reported that 93.6% of the investigations it monitored between 2005 and 2025 ended without an indictment. Only three percent resulted in a full or partial conviction.<\/p>\n

The High Court referred to several other recent petitions involving Palestinians driven from their homes and warned against treating the violence as unavoidable. It said the phenomenon had grown over years, diverted troops and resources from other security missions and damaged Israel\u2019s international standing.<\/p>\n

More fundamentally, the court said, nationalist violence against Palestinians is entirely unacceptable and contradicts the basic moral principles of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court of Justice ordered Israeli authorities on Sunday to arrange within 14 days for three Palestinian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[835,85,46,20986,43,246220,93712,77,25221],"class_list":["post-607901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-high-court-of-justice","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-and-palestine","tag-news","tag-palestinian-cities","tag-palestinian-population-in-west-bank","tag-west-bank","tag-west-bank-annexation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607901","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=607901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}