Qusra

At least four Palestinians are trapped inside the home, while settlers have set fire to nearby Palestinian land.

Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli forces, have surrounded a Palestinian home in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

At least four Palestinians are trapped inside the home while settlers have set fire to nearby land, according to Al Jazeera journalists.

Coordination is under way to allow ambulances to reach the area and evacuate one injured person.

Qusra has faced an escalating campaign of settler violence over the past month.

Settlers set fire to a mosque in the village in July, and since August 9 have besieged three Palestinian homes in the Ras al-Ain area, cutting access to water, electricity and other essential supplies.

“We’re not allowed to live freely in and out of our houses; no one is allowed to bring us any food or visit us from family members or friends,” Loui Abu Raideh, a resident trapped in his home, told Al Jazeera.

He said residents have to coordinate with the mayor of Qusra to get food and supplies, and it can take three to four days to get approval.

Israeli forces have declared the area a closed military zone and restricted Palestinians from entering and leaving, placing a gate at the main entrance of Qusra itself. Palestinians travelling into the village are forced to take alternative routes which are often blocked by Israeli forces.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military erected three new roadblocks at locations that encircled the top of the Ras al-Ain hill, disconnecting homes from the area below it.

Raideh said the feeling of being trapped is “a nightmare … 21 days, we can’t even sleep, we have to stay up at night [and] keep watching the security cameras, because those settlers can attack any time”.

Settler attacks – supported by the Israeli military – on Palestinian homes, businesses and farmland across the West Bank have been common for decades as illegal settlements have expanded across the territory.

The attacks have increased in intensity and frequency since Israel launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

Sunday marks one week since Israeli settlers began their siege of Qusra, a Palestinian village south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Since August 9, dozens of Israeli settlers have surrounded three Palestinian homes in the Ras al-Ain area on the edge of the village, cutting off water and electricity as food and other supplies run low. About 15 Palestinians from the Abu Rida and Hassan families live in these homes, among them two children under the age of seven and one belonging to a dual US citizen. Residents said settlers from nearby outposts have been trying to take the properties for months.

On Thursday, the Israeli military ordered the residents of two of the houses to leave and forced them all into the third. That same day, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, described the settlers besieging the homes as “Israeli terrorists“. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the siege, calling it criminal and inhumane.

Over the course of the week, the Israeli army declared the area a closed military zone and blocked Israeli and foreign activists from reaching the besieged families. Reporting from Qusra on Sunday, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the UN was able to bring in some aid that morning after coordinating with the Israeli military.

Where is Qusra?

Qusra sits in Area B, which makes up about 21 percent of the West Bank. It is where the Palestinian Authority runs civil affairs, such as education, healthcare and the economy, but Israel retains full security control and its forces can enter at will.

Odeh said the sequence in Qusra is following a pattern repeated across the West Bank: The Israeli army deploys to an area, takes over Palestinian homes and dispossesses residents of their properties while settlers face no arrests.

Average of six settler attacks each day

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, from January 2025 to June 2025, there were at least 3,033 settler attacks in the occupied West Bank – an average of six per day.

Settlements built illegally on Palestinian land

Last month, a similar siege in the neighbouring village of Jalud displaced Palestinian families from their land, which settlers then took over. Qusra itself has faced repeated attacks, including the burning of a newly built mosque last month.

Since October 7, 2023, when Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza began, settler attacks and land grabs have intensified in the West Bank under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, which has backed a rapid expansion of settlements.

About 700,000 Israelis live in settlements, which are illegal under international law. About three million Palestinians also live in the West Bank. Israel has occupied the region since 1967.

Israeli settlers have besieged three Palestinian families inside their homes in the occupied West Bank, cutting off water and electricity in a campaign residents described as an attempt to steal their land.

Security camera footage from the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, on Wednesday shows Israeli settlers surrounding one of the houses.

Trapped residents said Israeli soldiers had failed to disperse the settlers despite intervening earlier in the day.

Aisha Abu Rida, one of the residents under siege, told Al Jazeera that the siege began on Sunday, with settlers blocking all entrances to her home.

“We are surrounded by settlers, but we are steadfast, God willing. We will not leave our home, no matter what happens. Despite the water and electricity being cut off, we will remain steadfast,” she said.

“Despite their repeated attacks, which are aimed at displacing us, God willing, we will remain steadfast and stay in our homes, even if we are martyred,” she added.

‘Living in fear’

Loai Ridi, an American-Palestinian who owns a house in the village, said his brother Qusai Abu Rida and 18-year-old nephew, Ahmed, were among those trapped.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Toledo, in the United States, he said the family was relying on a temporary solar power system and leftover well water from the winter after supply lines were cut.

“He [Qusai Abu Rida] does not want to leave the home. Because if he leaves the home, the settlers will take over immediately,” Ridi said. “It’s really very, very difficult. He just told me, ‘I only have supplies for two to three days left. And if no one is able to provide us with food, I am not sure what else I can do’.”

Ridi said Israeli forces had done little to intervene when his brother had called for help on Sunday, and alleged the soldiers had knelt to pray alongside the settlers at the scene, in footage that has since circulated on social media.

“They basically did nothing,” he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, more Israeli forces arrived on the scene, dismantled the settlers’ tent and clashed with about 50 to 60 of the group before withdrawing. “They were unable to evacuate the settlers because they were not firm with them,” Ridi said. “They should have picked them up in vans and taken them away.”

The Israeli military said later on Wednesday that it would deploy an additional infantry battalion to the area, with its chief of general staff ordering continued efforts “to strengthen order and operational control” and prevent further incidents.

A day earlier, the Israeli military had said it received reports of settlers entering and seizing Palestinian homes and land in the area, describing the activity as “illegal, reprehensible and unacceptable” and disruptive to residents’ daily lives. It added that disciplinary action would be taken against security personnel filmed at the site in preceding days.

Ridi said his family was “living in fear”.

“They are being harassed and attacked by the settlers,” he said. “I cannot do anything about it.”

‘Ethnic cleansing’

Qusra sits in Area B of the occupied West Bank, nominally under Palestinian civil administration. The village has faced a string of recent attacks, including the burning of a newly built mosque last month.

In the neighbouring village of Jalud, a similar two-week siege in July forced two Palestinian families off their land before settlers took over the property.

Violence and land seizures in the occupied West Bank have intensified over the past months, with Jewish settlers emboldened by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has overseen a rapid expansion of settlement construction in the territory.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank in settlements that are considered illegal under international law, alongside roughly three million Palestinians. Israel has occupied the territory since 1967.

According to the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now, there are 146 illegal settlements in the West Bank and a further 390 smaller outposts.

Breaking the Silence, an Israeli rights group, said on X that while settlers commit “daily terror against Palestinian men, women, and children … neither this terror nor ethnic cleansing would be possible without the [Israeli] army’s support”.

The United Nations has also warned that the situation in the occupied West Bank has reached a “breaking point”.

According to UN figures, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 76 Palestinians, including 18 children, in the occupied territory so far this year. About 3,800 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, have also been displaced by settler violence, demolitions and evictions.

UN’s Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Ramiz Alakbarov said on Tuesday that the UN has documented more than 1,430 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage across roughly 260 Palestinian communities in 2026, with many carried out in the presence of Israeli forces.

He also noted that Israeli authorities have also advanced or approved roughly 12,360 settlement housing units across the West Bank this year, including 5,160 in occupied East Jerusalem.

“These are interconnected steps, not isolated developments,” Alakbarov said, warning that they were reshaping the occupied West Bank, weakening Palestinian governance and advancing “de facto annexation”.