Three Palestinian families in the village of Qusra, located just south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, have been trapped inside their homes since Sunday after Israeli settlers erected a tent nearby, blocked access roads, and cut off water and electricity supplies. The siege, which has left 13 people — including young children — without adequate food, medicine or utilities, continues despite a visit by senior Israeli military commanders who pledged to act.
Among those besieged is Yousef Hassan, who described settlers throwing stones, using obscene language and shouting through the night. When his two-year-old daughter fell ill with vomiting and a high fever on Monday, settlers blocked an ambulance from reaching the house. She and her mother were eventually evacuated on Tuesday. A resident, Qusai Abu Rida, told reporters he had only about a kilogram of bread left and no access to water or medicine, surviving partly thanks to solar panels that provided limited electricity. The homes lie in an area classified under the Oslo Accords as Zone B — administratively under Palestinian Authority control — but settlers have effectively cut it off from the rest of Qusra.
On Wednesday morning, the commander of Israeli forces in the region, General Avi Bluth, visited the families and promised to lift the siege. Soldiers removed the settlers' tent and confiscated two vehicles, but within roughly 90 minutes around 100 settlers returned, blocked the access road and threw stones at troops, who responded with tear gas. By mid-afternoon, the military had withdrawn and settlers remained on site. "The army has withdrawn, and so far we are still besieged, with the settlers at our doorstep," Abu Rida said. The Israeli military's chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, subsequently ordered a battalion of infantry reservists back from leave to reinforce troops in the West Bank, and said the military was working with police to bring those responsible to justice. Military spokespersons described themselves as "gravely concerned" but gave no timeline for ending the siege.
The incident is not isolated. Settlers used similar tactics against the al-Tubasi family in the neighbouring village of Jalud in July, driving them from their home after a months-long siege. Rights group B'Tselem says Israel has forcibly displaced 64 Palestinian communities over the past three years, with more than 4,800 people driven from their homes. At a UN Security Council session this week, convened at the request of five European member states, UN officials warned that the West Bank had reached a "dangerous turning point." The UN's deputy coordinator for Middle East peace talks said more than 1,430 incidents involving settlers had been documented this year alone, affecting some 260 Palestinian communities. UNICEF's deputy executive director told the council that 174 Palestinian children had been killed in the West Bank between January 2024 and July 2026 — roughly one per week.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers now live there among approximately three million Palestinians; the settlements are considered illegal under international law. Critics note that settler violence against Palestinians occurs with near-total impunity: since 2020, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli civilians or soldiers in the West Bank, yet only one indictment has been issued over those deaths. The military has declared the area around the besieged homes a closed military zone and blocked journalists from approaching — an order applied to reporters but not, witnesses say, to the settlers themselves.