West Bank: Washington's anger at the settler siege of Qusra

The situation in Qusra, a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank under attack from extremist Israeli settlers for five days and now besieged by the army, has drawn a reaction from the American administration.

One reason for Washington's attention may be that one of the families encircled in the village, the Abu Ridis, also holds American citizenship.

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, an openly pro-Israeli evangelical pastor, called the settlers involved "terrorists". According to the Israeli site Ynet, Washington is demanding explanations for what it calls anarchy in the West Bank and is pressing Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn the violence publicly.

So far the Israeli prime minister has not spoken. The task was left to Defence Minister Israel Katz, who condemned the violence while describing it as a marginal phenomenon.

A battalion to protect Palestinians

On Wednesday night the Israeli army sent the Golani battalion to dismantle the far-right activists' encampment outside several houses in Qusra, declaring the area a closed military zone. The operation, which the army says could last several days, is presented as intended to protect Palestinian residents and maintain security.

The army initially ordered several families barricaded in their homes to evacuate, then reversed the instruction. Several hours after the announcement, at least one of the two besieged families says it has still not been allowed to return. Disciplinary proceedings have been opened against soldiers filmed praying with settlers in the days before the encampment was cleared. So far only one of the attackers has been detained.

Military sources, speaking to the Italian news agency ANSA, describe the situation as complicated. An entire battalion deployed to defend Palestinians from attacks by Israeli civilians is a configuration that highlights the tension between the army and a government in the middle of an election campaign.

Condemnation also came from some leaders of the settlement community. "What happened in Qusra is not right and is not acceptable. There is no place for privately deciding to build in the yard of a house," said Israel Gantz, president of the Yesha Council, who in the same remarks nonetheless called for an end to the Oslo Accords so that regulated settlements could be built in all free areas.

Katz delivered his condemnation at the ceremony marking the refounding of the Ganim settlement, one of four evacuated in 2005 under the disengagement pursued by Ariel Sharon. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed credit for demolishing 26 Palestinian structures to make way for the new houses, where thirty families have settled.

Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's main rival in the October elections, also attacked the government, arguing that in the face of lawlessness by an extremist minority the army's commanders are left on their own. The army has said that since the start of 2026 it has dismantled one hundred and fifty-one illegal Israeli outposts in the West Bank, many of them rebuilt repeatedly after each operation.