Three Palestinian families remained trapped in a single besieged home in the West Bank village of Qusra on Friday, as a standoff with Israeli settlers stretched into its sixth day and drew a rare public rebuke from a senior American diplomat.
The siege in the Ras al-Ein area of Qusra, south of Nablus, began Sunday, when settlers cut water and electricity to the homes and pitched tents nearby, according to the United Nations human rights office. Fifteen people, including at least two children, have since been confined largely to one house, with medics, journalists and solidarity activists at times blocked from reaching them.
The standoff took a chaotic turn on Thursday, when the Israeli military ordered roughly 20 Palestinians evacuated from homes in the area as part of what it described as a broader operation against nearby settler outposts. The order was rescinded within hours, Israeli officials said, after it was reported by Haaretz and other outlets. The army said afterward that "no Palestinians will be moved from their homes" as troops operate in the village. But residents told the Times of Israel that six families had already left before the reversal, and at least one family said it still could not reach its house by Thursday evening. The settlers who had been carrying out the siege were not removed.
A Reversal Under Scrutiny
Overnight, soldiers dismantled two nearby settler outposts and detained one Israeli, the military said, and additional troops were sent to patrol the area in what officials described as a three-day operation. Israeli commanders had said Wednesday they viewed the settlers' conduct with "grave concern" and promised disciplinary steps.
Yet footage circulating this week showed soldiers praying alongside the same settlers accused of besieging the Palestinian families, feeding skepticism on the ground about how seriously the military intends to intervene. Qusra's mayor said the army appeared more interested in socializing with the settlers than protecting the trapped residents, according to Al Jazeera.
The episode drew an unusually sharp public statement from U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an evangelical pastor who has long supported Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Huckabee called the siege a "horrific act of terror" and labeled the attacking settlers "Israeli terrorists," according to NPR, adding that their actions were "disgusting" and that there was "no excuse for such thuggish behaviour." He said the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem had asked Israeli security forces to remove the settlers from the site.
The UN's human rights office, OHCHR, went further, saying the abuse was state-sanctioned.
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 their land.
OHCHR statement, via UN News
Part of a Broader Surge
Qusra has faced escalating settler pressure since a nearby outpost was established last November, and the siege follows the forced displacement of a Palestinian family in the neighboring village of Jalud in July. More broadly, the UN's humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, has said settler attacks and access restrictions displaced more than 2,300 Palestinians across the West Bank in 2026 as of early July — already surpassing all of 2025 — and that more than 6,200 people have been driven from their homes since 2023.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused Israel of using settlers as an "unchecked tool" for what it called a policy of forced displacement. Israeli officials have not publicly responded to that characterization, and the military has framed its own operation in Qusra as an effort to clear illegal outposts rather than to protect any particular family.
For now, the families at the center of the siege remain where they have been since Sunday: largely confined to one house, uncertain whether the military's latest assurances will hold, and waiting to see whether a promised three-day operation brings the outposts' removal — or simply another reversal.
