Settler siege of Palestinian homes in West Bank a 'horrific act of terror,' US ambassador says

JERUSALEM (AP) — The U.S. Ambassador to Israel condemned the actions of Jewish settlers who are besieging the home of an American Palestinian family in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee called the siege a “horrific act of terror.”

Since Sunday, according to local officials and family members, settlers have gathered near the home in the village of Qusra and harassed those inside, defying efforts by the Israeli military to defuse the situation.

A group that has included up to dozens of men has thrown stones, attempted to bring down a stone wall nearby, and prevented the occupants from leaving despite dwindling supplies.

Speaking to The Associated Press by phone from his home in Ohio, the home's owner Lou Ridi said his 48-year-old brother and nephew, who have been holed up in the home to defend it, had been unable to leave the house and did not have access to food or water for several days.

On Thursday morning, the owner’s brother Qusai Abu Rida said that he and his teenage son had been evacuated by Israel’s military. It was unclear what would happen to the property and at least one other that has been targeted.

Israeli troops intervened in recent days to try to restore order. The military said that overnight Thursday its troops had dismantled “two illegal outposts” on the outskirts of Qusra and a nearby village, and detained one Israeli. It added that additional soldiers had surged to the area, which is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) of the Palestinian city of Nablus, to “carry out defensive missions and patrols.”

Journalists on the outskirts of Qusra said roads into the village were closed. Israeli police did not immediately respond to questions about whether any Israeli civilians had been arrested.

Palestinians and the Israeli opposition accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government of turning a blind eye to attacks by settlers against Palestinians as clashes have surged in the last few years.

Huckabee’s post on X was an unusually sharp rebuke from a U.S. official, even as he defended the Israeli military’s response. Huckabee is a longtime ally of Israel’s settler movement and in the past has expressed support for Israeli control over the occupied West Bank while condemning settler violence.

Home security footage from Thursday morning appeared to show a few settlers still hiding by a damaged stone wall near the house.

Ridi said that settlers have been harassing his home for months before the situation escalated in recent days, saying they had cut off the water and electricity to his house and thrown stones, causing damage to the property as well as at least one more house in the area.

“We are prisoners in our own house, hostages in our own house,” he said.

Last month, a mosque in Qusra was set on fire in another apparent settler attack. That followed the killing of an Israeli settler, which triggered violence that left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian villagers dead.

Settlers have been building more outposts in an effort condemned by many in the international community as aimed at dismantling any remaining hopes of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, as part of a future state. Many settlers and their supporters say the entire area should belong to Israel for historical, religious and security reasons.

Associated Press writers Sam Mednick and Giovanna Dell'Orto contributed from Jerusalem. Koral Saeed contributed reporting from Herzliya, Israel.