Settlers torch West Bank homes as Palestinian family tries to return

Israeli settlers set fire to two Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank village of Jalud after more than 100 people confronted a family trying to return under a court order, Israeli authorities and the family said. The violence on Monday night forced security forces to abandon the family’s return and evacuate them.

Mahmoud al-Tubasi, 60, his wife Aida, 51, and their son Wael, 33, had arrived with Israeli soldiers and border police. The family had left their homes this summer after weeks of settler harassment and attacks. Earlier this month, Israel’s High Court ordered authorities to allow them back by September 20 and criticized their failure to curb settler violence.

Al-Tubasi told the BBC that he received a message around midnight telling him to go immediately with security forces if he wanted to reclaim his property. Inside one house, the family found smashed windows, broken doors, torn-out electrical fittings and damaged tiles, he said.

“As soon as we entered the house, which had already been completely destroyed, settlers started throwing stones at us,” al-Tubasi told the BBC. He estimated that more than 150 settlers had gathered. Soldiers used tear gas and pepper spray to hold people back, he said, before moving the family into an armored vehicle after settlers slashed the tires of a military van.

Settlers then set fire to the family’s car and both houses as they were driven away, al-Tubasi said. “My feeling now is that I am happy to have escaped death. I genuinely expected they were going to kill us.”

The Israeli military said more than 100 Israeli rioters blocked roads, burned tires and threw stones at security forces. Three police officers were lightly injured and a security vehicle was damaged, it said. Describing the family as victims of “nationalist crime,” the military said the violence prevented it from completing the return.

Accounts differed over the security forces’ conduct. Al-Tubasi told the BBC that soldiers got his family out safely but took no action against the settlers. Local sources cited by Anadolu news agency alleged that Israeli forces protected the settlers and forced the family to leave at gunpoint. The military said soldiers and border police had worked to disperse the rioters and protect residents.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attacks on security forces and called for the rioters to be prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law.” Police said they arrested three suspects. The High Court had described settler actions as “a completely unacceptable phenomenon” at odds with Israel’s basic values.

The violence extended beyond Jalud, according to the BBC, which reported that a local council leader said a Palestinian woman was assaulted and her house set ablaze in a nearby village. Al Jazeera, citing Anadolu, also reported settler attacks Tuesday in Qaryut and al-Mughayyir.

The United Nations says more than 6,500 Palestinians have been displaced by settler attacks and access restrictions in the West Bank since 2023. Its humanitarian office has recorded 6,199 settler attacks causing casualties or damage over that period. Israeli settlements and outposts in the occupied territory are illegal under international law.