US ambassador calls Israeli settler siege of West Bank homes ‘act of terror’

Qusra, Palestinian Territories: Israeli forces moved against rogue settlers laying siege to Palestinians on Thursday, after unusually strong US criticism, even as Israel re-opened an emblematic settlement elsewhere in the West Bank.

Settlers at Qusra near Nablus have since Sunday been blockading Palestinian homes, including one owned by a US citizen, with residents saying they have been cut off from food and other supplies.

The Israeli military said it sent forces to the area overnight and dismantled two outposts, detaining one Israeli. Troops remained in place, the military said, to “protect the residents and maintain security”.

Witnesses said the settlers remained on rocks on a nearby hill, even after troops removed their tent and blankets.

“So far, no one has been able to get food and supplies to us because the area is completely sealed off by the army,” said Aisha Hassan, trapped in one of the besieged houses.

Qusra mayor Abdul Azim Wadi told AFP that the army had withdrawn from eight homes it had seized on Thursday morning, and that “all residents who had been evacuated returned to their homes”.

On Thursday evening, settlers were still in the area, including near houses that they had previously besieged, the mayor said. Israeli troops also remained in the town, and told residents they would stay until Sunday, he said.

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, for years a staunch supporter of settlers, said there was “no excuse for such thuggish behaviour”.

“Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting,” Huckabee wrote on X.

Video footage published over the weekend appeared to show Israeli forces praying alongside the settlers, leading the army to say it would take action.

The UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory on Thursday called on the Israeli authorities to “immediately” act against the settlers.

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“These criminal actions by the settlers, supported or acquiesced to by Israel, the occupying power, are making life unbearable for these Palestinian families, and are clearly aimed at forcing them to leave their homes and land,” it said in a statement.

EU foreign policy spokesperson Anitta Hipper called on Israel to take “concrete action to prevent settler violence”.

– ‘Failure and weakness’ –

The army’s pursuit of the settlers comes on the same day that a number of Israeli officials, including Defence Minister Israel Katz, were celebrating the reopening of another settlement at Ganim in the northern West Bank.

The settlement had been dismantled more than 20 years ago as part of a disengagement plan by the then government which wanted to reduce friction by leaving densely populated Palestinian areas.

“Here, this is the Land of Israel. Here, we are staying forever,” Katz said at the reopening ceremony, where dozens of families prepared to move into new pre-fabricated homes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government gave the green light to rebuild the settlement as it seeks to appeal to his hard-right base ahead of October 27 elections, which polls show are looking tight.

Gadi Eisenkot, who has emerged as the principal challenger to Netanyahu in the elections, called the events in Qusra “another grave expression of the failure and weakness” of the government.

“In the face of anarchy and violent violation of the law by a radical minority, the government is abandoning IDF commanders to fight alone,” he wrote in a post on X, referring to the military.

The US criticism of the siege is especially striking coming from Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor who in the past has embraced Jewish settlement in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and rejected the idea of a Palestinian state.

Violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has increased dramatically since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians in the territory.