Timeline: The one-week siege of Qusra by Israeli settlers in the West Bank

In PicturesSaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkCCTV footage shows Israeli settlers throwing rocks on the road in Qusra in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. [Reuters]By Al Jazeera StaffPublished On 16 Aug 202616 Aug 2026Sunday marks one week since Israeli settlers began their siege of Qusra, a Palestinian village south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.Since August 9, dozens of Israeli settlers have surrounded three Palestinian homes in the Ras al-Ain area on the edge of the village, cutting off water and electricity as food and other supplies run low. About 15 Palestinians from the Abu Rida and Hassan families live in these homes, among them two children under the age of seven and one belonging to a dual US citizen. Residents said settlers from nearby outposts have been trying to take the properties for months.On Thursday, the Israeli military ordered the residents of two of the houses to leave and forced them all into the third. That same day, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, described the settlers besieging the homes as “Israeli terrorists“. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the siege, calling it criminal and inhumane.Over the course of the week, the Israeli army declared the area a closed military zone and blocked Israeli and foreign activists from reaching the besieged families. Reporting from Qusra on Sunday, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the UN was able to bring in some aid that morning after coordinating with the Israeli military.Where is Qusra?Qusra sits in Area B, which makes up about 21 percent of the West Bank. It is where the Palestinian Authority runs civil affairs, such as education, healthcare and the economy, but Israel retains full security control and its forces can enter at will.Odeh said the sequence in Qusra is following a pattern repeated across the West Bank: The Israeli army deploys to an area, takes over Palestinian homes and dispossesses residents of their properties while settlers face no arrests.Average of six settler attacks each dayAccording to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, from January 2025 to June 2025, there were at least 3,033 settler attacks in the occupied West Bank – an average of six per day.Settlements built illegally on Palestinian landLast month, a similar siege in the neighbouring village of Jalud displaced Palestinian families from their land, which settlers then took over. Qusra itself has faced repeated attacks, including the burning of a newly built mosque last month.Since October 7, 2023, when Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza began, settler attacks and land grabs have intensified in the West Bank under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, which has backed a rapid expansion of settlements.About 700,000 Israelis live in settlements, which are illegal under international law. About three million Palestinians also live in the West Bank. Israel has occupied the region since 1967.Israeli settlers have besieged three Palestinian families inside their homes in Qusra, cutting off water and electricity in a campaign residents describe as an attempt to steal their land. [Ammar Awad/Reuters]Palestinians use their phones to film Israeli settlers and military personnel outside a Palestinian home in Qusra. [Reuters]Trapped residents say Israeli soldiers have failed to disperse the settlers despite intervening earlier in the day. [Ali Sawafta/Reuters]Israeli soldiers stand guard next to settlers in front of Palestinian homes that they have blockaded in the village of Qusra. [Nidal Eshtayeh/AP Photo]A mosque in Qusra was burned during an attack by Israeli settlers on July 26, 2026 [Leo Correa/AP Photo]Activists try to bring food and water to besieged Palestinian families in Qusra as Israeli soldiers block the road leading to their houses. [File: Majdi Mohammed/AP Photo]