For a seventh consecutive day, Israel has not removed the armed settlers besieging Palestinian families in their homes in the village of Qusra, southeast of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, despite mounting pressure from the United States, from governments around the world, and from the growing international attention on the trapped families. Rather than lifting the siege, Israeli occupation forces have expelled still more Palestinians from their homes.
The siege has trapped families inside their homes on the edge of Qusra since Sunday, among them two children under the age of seven in one of the besieged houses. Armed settlers have surrounded the homes, cutting the families off from food, water, and medical care. An attempt by Israeli anti-occupation activists to bring basic supplies of water, juice, and bread was blocked by soldiers, though some of the supplies eventually reached the families. The mayor of Qusra said the residents were waiting on Israeli coordination to allow UNICEF to deliver medical supplies and food to those trapped inside.
Qusai Abu Raideh, a resident of one of the besieged homes, said dozens of Israeli settlers had tried to force their way into his house in the space of a few hours, claiming the home was theirs and that they would take control of it, before the army pushed them back. He described the dynamic as a game, in which the Israeli army allows the settlers through before forcing them back again, only for the cycle to repeat. The settlers have besieged the area for a week, cutting water and electricity to the homes and effectively trapping three families inside. Abu Raideh said nothing had changed in a week despite the statements by US officials condemning the settler attacks, and that the little food and water that had managed to slip through the siege was almost gone.
Far from acting as a neutral force, the Israeli occupation army has operated hand in hand with the settlers it claims to have been sent to remove. The armed settlers have been seen talking and praying alongside Israeli soldiers at the site, and one settler was filmed driving past the soldiers and circling the besieged homes unhindered. While Israel presents the army's presence as an effort to rein in the settlers, on the ground the soldiers and settlers maintain the siege together, and the army has itself seized Palestinian homes in the village and turned them into military posts. According to a Palestinian official, Israeli forces have taken over 16 Palestinian homes in Qusra, converting them into military positions.
The failure to lift the siege has persisted despite an unusual level of international friction. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee branded the settlers responsible "Israeli terrorists" and said the US Embassy had asked Israeli forces to remove them. One of the besieged homes belongs to a US citizen, who has raised the danger to his family with American lawmakers and said he does not believe the ambassador has done enough, because the settlers still have not left. According to Israeli officials, Washington has been pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly to publicly condemn the settler violence, a demand he has so far refused, wary of confronting the settlers and his far-right coalition partners.
Yet even as it faced this pressure, Israel moved to entrench the very system driving the violence. War Minister Israel Katz announced that he had instructed the army to prepare a plan transferring civilian enforcement powers in the occupied West Bank from the military to the Israeli police, which answers to far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a step Palestinians warn amounts to the beginning of de facto annexation carried out under the guise of security.
On the ground in Qusra, the reality has moved in the opposite direction of the stated pressure. During an operation billed as an effort to evacuate the settlers earlier in the week, the occupation army instead ordered 13 Palestinian families in the Qusra and Jalud areas to leave their homes, with residents returning to find their houses damaged, cash stolen, and in one home pages torn from a copy of the Quran. Soldiers also seized a DVR device that had recorded much of the siege. The pattern is unmistakable: the international pressure has produced statements, but on the ground Israel has removed Palestinians, not settlers.
