Israeli troops have forced two Palestinian families to leave their besieged West Bank homes, the day after a top Israeli commander personally promised he would end a violent settler campaign to drive them out.
Israeli soldiers also took over eight other homes in Qusra early on Thursday, telling the village’s mayor, Abdul Azim Wadi, that the buildings were needed for a days-long operation to remove the settlers. They later relinquished six. Settlers still roam the village.
The Palestinians’ ordeal began on Sunday when Israeli settlers and soldiers set up a tent blocking the entrance to three homes on the edge of the village. They severed water and electricity supplies and prevented an ambulance from reaching a sick toddler.
Amid mounting international pressure over the siege, Maj Gen Avi Bluth, who commands all Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, visited Qusra on Wednesday to meet the trapped Palestinians and committed to “evacuate” the settlers from the village.
Bluth’s troops later removed the tent but left the militants, their bedding and other equipment. Soldiers retreated after a failed attempt to drive out the Israeli settler group with riot control techniques. The siege continued into a fifth day on Thursday, with the impact on the village only expanding after Bluth’s visit.
“The army arrived at around ۱۰am and asked us to evacuate the houses because of a military operation in the area that would last for three days. We refused to leave,” said Qusai Ridi, one of the besieged Palestinians. “The army then moved us all into one house.”
He was allowed to return home in the afternoon, where he found Israeli soldiers had damaged a security camera system and stolen some equipment. They are still occupying the home of his neighbour Yousef Hassan, who is staying with Ridi.
Settlers are still patrolling outside in the area where ۲۸-year-old Amir Moatasem Odeh was killed by a settler in March. Another attacker stabbed his father. No one has been arrested over the murder and assault.
“I am afraid and do not trust that the army will actually evacuate the settlers. But I sincerely hope they do,” Ridi said.
His brother is an American citizen, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who is generally supportive of Israel’s settlement project, described the siege as a “horrific act of terror” carried out by Israeli terrorists.
On Thursday afternoon, Israeli soldiers left six homes they had taken over in the morning. The returning Palestinian families reported damage including a Qur’an with pages torn out and destroyed decorations.
Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert said the siege was a “concerted and meticulous attempt at ethnic cleansing”, which left him disgusted and ashamed.
“These are crimes against humanity which are actively supported by the Israeli government and are assisted by the indifference and total lack of action by the IDF and the Israeli police. It’s unforgettable and unforgivable.”
The same terror tactics were used to force another Palestinian family out of their home in the neighbouring village of Jalud in July. Soldiers and settlers were filmed playing with a football together on the terrace of that house on Thursday.
An Israeli military spokesperson said soldiers had been ordered not to displace Palestinian residents of Qusra and would not operate inside the besieged homes.
“The soldiers were instructed that the Qusra residents will remain in their homes,” the military said in a statement. The spokesperson declined to comment on why those orders were being violated.
The chief of the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Eyal Zamir, has ordered a battalion of infantry reservists back from leave to reinforce troops in the West Bank. Domestic critics said the army’s failures in Qusra were more the result of a lack of will than shortage of forces.
“Yesterday’s events in Qusra illustrate the impotence of the IDF, the police, the GSS [Shin Bet] and other security organizations in the face of a group of bullies,” the commentator Avi Ashkenazi wrote in the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv.
“Instead of bringing a police van [and] arresting the criminals … [security forces] have been trying to negotiate with them. They are thugs. They believe themselves to be the lords of the land.”
Israeli militants target Palestinians with near total impunity in the occupied West Bank. Since ۲۰۲۰, Israeli civilians and soldiers have killed more than ۱,۱۰۰ Palestinians there, and there has been only one indictment over those deaths.
Violence is deployed as part of a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing. Israel has forcibly displaced ۶۴ Palestinian communities over the past three years, the rights group B’Tselem said. Fifteen other communities have lost residents, with more than ۴,۸۰۰ people driven from their homes.
Sufian Taha contributed reporting
