Illegal Israeli settlers continued on Tuesday to maintain a tight siege for the 10th day on three Palestinian homes in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, under Israeli army protection, a local official said.
Since August 9, illegal settlers have laid a siege around three Palestinian families, comprising around 13 people, in the Ras al-Ain area of the town, obstructing the delivery of food, water and basic supplies.
Qusra Mayor Abdul Azim al-Wadi told Anadolu that Israeli forces and illegal settlers continued to surround the three homes, preventing families from entering or leaving, as the area has been declared a “closed military zone.”
“The illegal settlers are deployed in the area and move freely,” he said.
Wadi said the owner of one of the homes, Louay Abu Rida, a US citizen, managed on Monday to reach his home, accompanied by an American delegation.
“It was very difficult to see your home and family besieged through surveillance cameras, and the hardest part was that I was far away from them and unable to reach them,” Abu Rida told Anadolu after his arrival in the town.
He said that as soon as he arrived in the town from the US, the scenes he had been watching remotely had become a reality around his home, with settlers reaching the vicinity despite the presence of the Israeli army in the area.
“We were told the army was there to protect us and keep the settlers away, but what we saw on the ground was different,” Abu Rida said.
The Ras al-Ain area has seen repeated attacks by Israeli settlers in recent months to establish an illegal settlement outpost and seize Palestinian land and homes. Palestinians have warned that the siege could become a tool to displace residents and take over their property.
Separately, a Palestinian was injured by Israeli army fire in Al-Ram town, north of occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
Israeli soldiers opened fire at a Palestinian near the separation wall in Al-Ram, witnesses said. The circumstances of the shooting remain unclear.
The shooting came amid escalating attacks by the Israeli army and illegal Israeli settlers that have killed more than 1,100 people across the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian figures, since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023,
