“A horrible act of terror.” This is how the occupation, for five days now, of two Palestinian houses by Israeli settlers in the town of Qusra, in the West Bank, has been described. The condemnation does not come from a human rights group or the ever “concerned” European Union, but from a great ally of Israel, the United States ambassador in Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee.
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“The actions of those who perpetrated this horrible act of terror, intended to intimidate and harass this family, are disgusting. There is no excuse for such bullying behavior,” declared the diplomat on X, a staunch defender of Zionism and the main link between the White House and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The words are striking coming from an evangelical pastor who has repeatedly supported the expansion of settlements and rejected the idea of a Palestinian state.
The difference between this attack and others carried out by settlers in the region is that the members of the house in front of which the Israeli extremists are entrenched belong to Loui Ridi, a Palestinian-American resident of Ohio. His brother and his 18-year-old nephew were trapped inside the house when the assault took place, and they went to the embassy seeking help. “The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Police have come at our request to remove the Israeli terrorists who are doing this,” Huckabee wrote.
The events began on Sunday, when a group of settlers from the illegal settlements surrounding Qusra erected several temporary structures next to two houses located on the outskirts of the village and blocked their access. The neighbors report having been left without food supply or basic services since then.
The army’s first attempt to evict the settlers came on Wednesday and failed. The military plan had been leaked to the media in advance, which led dozens of activist settlers to flock to the area in support. The extremists blocked the road to the houses with stones and clashed with security forces. The troops ended up dismantling the temporary structures but left without removing the occupants. Several soldiers were recorded praying alongside the settlers instead of evicting them, an episode for which the IDF has announced disciplinary measures.
After that fiasco, the chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, ordered the deployment of an additional infantry battalion to strengthen operational control on the ground. The army assured that it was working alongside the police and the internal intelligence service to restore order and “bring the rioters to justice.”
The second attempt took place before dawn on Thursday. The IDF and the Border Police demolished the structures of two illegal settlements, in Qusra and neighboring Yalud. But with little success: the settlers remain there. Images show several of them stationed near the besieged houses, and the neighbors say they have limited themselves to climbing a nearby hill, where there is another outpost established months ago that has not been dismantled.
What happened on Thursday has turned the operation into a difficult-to-explain episode. The soldiers ordered the evacuation of fifteen Palestinian houses in the village, including the two besieged ones, claiming that the eviction was part of a military operation precisely aimed at removing the settlers from the area.
That is: to expel the settlers, the army started by removing the Palestinians from their homes. Kusay Abu Ridi, a resident of one of the besieged houses, explained that the soldiers entered his home and gave him half an hour to leave, without offering any explanation. Other neighbors said the deadline was three days; Israeli activists present on the ground spoke of seven.
The order was revoked hours later, when the case began to make headlines. “Instructions have been given to the forces to allow the village residents to remain in their homes,” the army corrected in a statement, although it specified that the troops will continue entering uninhabited buildings. Some neighbors have been able to return. One of the two besieged families, however, says that to this day they still cannot access their home.
Settler attacks have skyrocketed since October 7, 2023, becoming the norm in the West Bank. Every day, without exception, the WhatsApp groups that many Palestinians use to stay informed alert about road closures, new outposts, or the construction of another settlement. On Route 60, which connects Jerusalem with the northern part of the territory, Israeli flags mark the colonial advance. More than 500,000 Israelis already live in settlements illegal under international law, alongside about three million Palestinians.
Israeli society itself is beginning to look with suspicion at these armed men, convinced they are the chosen people and devoted to the messianic enterprise of settling in Judea and Samaria, the biblical term the government has normalized to refer to the West Bank. In Tel Aviv and other cities, some warn that this violence—backed by the army, as in Qusra—only brings closer the outbreak that everyone fears.
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