TEL AVIV: About a dozen Palestinian households in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra were ordered to leave their homes during an Israeli military operation aimed at removing Israeli settlers from the area.
According to residents, settlers had surrounded three Palestinian homes since Sunday and cut off electricity and water supplies to the families living there.
Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi told the BBC that the village had been declared a closed military zone and that Israeli forces were using some of the evacuated Palestinian homes as temporary military barracks. The Israeli military said the operation was intended to “protect the residents.”
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer condemned the settlers’ actions as “deplorable” and “unacceptable,” and said authorities would investigate the incident, arrest those responsible, and pursue legal action against them.
The current Israeli government’s rapid expansion of settlements has been widely seen as encouraging settler activity, contributing to a sharp increase in violence against Palestinians and attempts to force them from their land. International law considers all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories illegal.
The homes under siege belonged to members of the Abu Ridi and Hassan families. Residents told the BBC that people living in two of the three houses were ordered to leave on Thursday and later took shelter in the remaining house.
Elsewhere in Qusra, occupants of 11 additional homes were also instructed by the army to evacuate.
Videos circulated overnight showed around a dozen Israeli security vehicles, including a bulldozer, entering the area. Footage filmed later in daylight showed a long line of Israeli security personnel along the road leading to the village.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had dismantled two illegal settler outposts and detained one Israeli suspect. Equipment was also confiscated in the outskirts of Qusra and nearby Jalud, close to Nablus.
One resident ordered to leave, Qaher Odeh, said more than 20 soldiers entered his home early Thursday morning.
“I was asleep with my brother when they broke down the door and shouted for us to open it. I still cannot fully process what I saw. There were more than 20 soldiers, perhaps 30,” he told the BBC.
Inputs from BBC
Comment