Israeli settlers attack West Bank village and block Palestinian family's return home

Israeli settlers attack West Bank village and block Palestinian family's return home

More than 100 Israeli settlers carried out attacks in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, preventing a family escorted by the Israeli military from going back to homes that settlers had seized weeks earlier.

Two houses owned by the al-Tubasi family in Jalud, south of Nablus, were torched in the Monday night raid, and Israeli security forces were also attacked by settlers. Human rights groups say the incidents highlight how Israeli authorities are failing to respond effectively to settler violence.

"It was extremely terrifying, beyond words. It's hard to imagine the situation," Mahmoud al-Tubasi told the BBC.

"My feeling now is that I am happy to have escaped death. I genuinely expected they were going to kill us."

Al-Tubasi, 60, his wife Aida, 51, and their 33-year-old son, Wael, had gone back to their properties with Israeli forces after Israel's High Court ruled earlier this month that they had to be allowed to return.

The family was driven out this summer after weeks of harassment and attacks by settlers. Extremist settlers had established an illegal outpost near Jalud and surrounded three houses, including two belonging to the al-Tubasis' sons, who are married and have young daughters.

Al-Tubasi said he was phoned around midnight and told that arrangements had been made with Israel's military for his family to return to their homes. He said he received a message from Israeli officials telling him that if he wanted to recover his property, he had to go immediately with the army and Israeli border police.

Using torchlight, the family inspected one house. A video shared with the BBC shows settlers had already caused extensive damage, punching holes through doors, ripping out electrical fixtures, tearing up tiles, smashing windows and leaving rubbish scattered inside. The toilet was broken and appeared to contain human waste.

A large number of extremist settlers arrived in Jalud after alerts were posted in WhatsApp groups they use to coordinate action, saying the Palestinian family they had driven out was coming back and should be stopped.

"As soon as we entered the house, which had already been completely destroyed, settlers started throwing stones at us. The army responded by firing tear gas at them, but there were so many settlers, more than 150, that the army could no longer control them," al-Tubasi told the BBC.

The grandfather said a group of Israeli soldiers shielded his family from settlers who tried to get close, using pepper spray to push them back. Settlers slashed the tyres of a military van they were placed in, after which they were moved to an armoured military vehicle.

While the family was being taken away, settlers set fire to their car and both houses. Video filmed from a distance shows smoke rising from the buildings.

Al-Tubasi said Israeli security forces "essentially formed a barrier, took us out safely and got us away from there. But they did not take any action against the settlers themselves."

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said that "more than 100 Israeli rioters were present in the village, blocking roads, setting tyres on fire, and throwing stones at security forces."

The Israeli military said three police officers were lightly injured and a security forces vehicle was damaged. It described the Tubasi family as victims of "nationalist crime" and said that "due to the violence, the mission to return the family to their home was not completed."

The head of Jalud's local council told reporters that residents confronted the settlers, triggering clashes that spread to a nearby village, where a Palestinian woman was assaulted by settlers and her house was set on fire.

Israel's prime minister called on law enforcement authorities to prosecute those he called "rioters"

One month ago, Aida al-Tubasi was attacked by masked Israeli settlers and injured along with American journalists who were interviewing her in Jalud.

The high court ruling, which criticised Israeli authorities for failing to crack down on settler violence, ordered that the family be safely returned home by 20 September - more than a week ago.

The ruling used strong language, describing Israeli settlers' actions as "a completely unacceptable phenomenon that stands in contrast to the basic values and moral principles of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he strongly condemned the attacks on security forces and urged law enforcement, "to prosecute the rioters to the fullest extent of the law." Israeli police said they had arrested three people suspected of involvement in the attacks.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly last week, Netanyahu dismissed international concerns about settler violence.

He accused the media of ignoring attacks on Jewish Israelis and focusing on "a handful of juvenile delinquents, about 150 in number, who throw stones, who chop down olive trees, occasionally they light some fires."

According to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, fewer than three per cent of police investigations into settler violence over the past two decades have resulted in a conviction.

Ziv Stahl, its executive director, said the lack of effective law enforcement was because, "the violence is part of a systematic government policy aimed at pushing Palestinians out of the area and expanding Israeli control over land in the West Bank".

Netanyahu's government has overseen a rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying it has biblical and legal rights to the land. Some ministers have said they want to "bury the idea" that an independent Palestinian state could be established in the territory alongside East Jerusalem and Gaza. Settlements and outposts are illegal under international law.

Settler violence has reached record levels this year, according to the United Nations, which says that since 2023 more than 6,500 Palestinians have been displaced because of settler attacks and access restrictions in the occupied West Bank.

Over the same period, the UN's Humanitarian Office (OCHA) has recorded 6,199 attacks by Israeli settlers causing casualties or damage, external.

According to OCHA, at least 82 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank this year, and four Israelis have been killed - members of the security forces and civilians. At least 23 Palestinians were killed in the context of settler attacks.