Settlers besiege Palestinian family inside West Bank home as Israeli forces block help

A Palestinian family has been trapped inside its home in the occupied West Bank for three days, running short of food and unable to get medical help for a two-year-old child, as activists on the ground tell The New Arab that Israeli settlers and soldiers are preventing anyone, including an ambulance, from reaching them.

The siege of the family home in Qusra, south of Nablus, began on Sunday, when Israeli settlers erected a makeshift tent inside the grounds of the property and blocked access to the house.

Activists who have since tried to bring food and medical assistance to the family say Israeli forces have not only allowed the settlers to remain but have prevented those attempting to reach the house from getting through.

Andrey X, an activist and journalist who has spent much of the past two years documenting settler violence across the occupied West Bank, travelled to Qusra on Monday in an attempt to deliver food to the family. Instead, he said, settlers attacked his group and an ambulance in full view of Israeli soldiers.

"The settlers attacked us in full view of the army. They attacked the ambulance, and the army, instead of doing anything to the settlers, detained us and took our IDs and keys and ordered us to get out of the village, and then held us for even longer, and only then released us," Andrey told TNA.

Andrey, a Russian-born activist who holds Israeli citizenship, has spent long periods living among Palestinian communities in the West Bank, documenting settler incursions and attacks and the role of Israeli forces accompanying them.

On Monday, he said, one of the soldiers preventing access to the house appeared to endorse the settlers' claim to the land.

"One of the soldiers told me, 'It's their land. This land belongs to them,' even though this is Area B. This is a blatant violation of the Oslo Accords."

Inside the house are homeowner Yousef Hassan, his wife and their two daughters, aged two and four. 

Hassan has said the family is running out of food and that his two-year-old daughter needs to see a doctor. He previously said settlers had cut electricity lines to the property.

But attempts to reach them have repeatedly failed.

Israeli forces and settlers have blocked access to the house, including for ambulances and journalists, while footage shared online showed Israeli soldiers praying alongside settlers at the makeshift encampment.

Several journalists have also been prevented from entering the area. Haaretz journalists said they were attacked by settlers while attempting to reach Qusra.

"The Israeli state is literally starving a family to death," Andrey said, describing what was happening at the house as "one of the most egregious examples of just blatant crimes against humanity being committed by the settlers and the Israeli army together".

'An attempted takeover'

Palestinian officials say the siege is part of an attempt to force the family from its property rather than an isolated confrontation.

Ameer Dawood, Director of Publishing and Documentation at the Colonisation & Wall Resistance Commission, described it to TNA as "an extremely dangerous act of settler terrorism and an attempted takeover of Palestinian property".

"The conduct of the Israeli occupation forces is particularly alarming," Dawood said, pointing to soldiers carrying out Jewish prayers alongside settlers and the prevention of an ambulance from reaching the house," he said. "This conduct provides protection and practical support for the coercive pressure being imposed on the residents."

Hassan said the pressure on his family began months before settlers established the encampment outside his home, with settlers first coming to the property and harassing them around seven months ago.

Dawood said Jabal Ras al-Ain, where the house is located, is an important agricultural area and one of Qusra's remaining spaces for natural and residential development.

"The same area has faced repeated attacks, electricity cuts and attempts to force families from their homes during recent months," he said.

The location of the confrontation is also significant.

Qusra lies in Area B of the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exercises civil control while Israel retains overriding security powers.

Andrey had warned in an interview with TNA in June that settlers were increasingly pushing beyond Area C, which is under full Israeli control, and establishing outposts and carrying out attacks in Areas A and B.

"Setting up outposts in areas A and B was unheard of until the past few months," he said at the time. "But now they are popping up more and more."

He said those incursions could not be separated from the role of Israeli forces, describing a system in which "it's not just settlers, it's settler attacks with the support of the Israeli army who are always there".

The events outside the Hassan family's home reflect precisely the pattern activists and Palestinian officials have been warning about - settlers establishing a presence on Palestinian land while Israeli forces restrict those attempting to challenge or document it.

The siege comes amid a wider surge in Israeli settler violence and settlement expansion across the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

Rights groups have documented repeated cases of settlers attacking Palestinian communities under the protection of Israeli forces, alongside land seizures, demolitions and the forced displacement of Palestinians.

Rights organisations have described the combination of settler violence and Israeli state policies as part of a broader process of state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing of the occupied West Bank.

Dawood said the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited authority in Areas A and B, cannot physically remove the settlers and was instead seeking intervention through international organisations and diplomatic channels.

"The urgency of international intervention is heightened by the conduct of the Israeli forces at the site," he said.