Israeli soldiers clashed with Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday in an attempt to break a three-day siege on the Palestinian village of Qusra, near Nablus. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had removed a structure from which extremist settlers had been restricting access to three Palestinian families, but footage showed some settlers remained at the location after the demolition.Armed settlers also blocked some roads, despite an IDF declaration that the area is a closed military zone.Qusra council leader Abdel Azim Wadi said large numbers of settlers were continuing to arrive and described the situation as chaotic.A statement by the army characterised the settlers’ actions as “illegal, reprehensible and unacceptable activity that harms the residents of the areas and disrupts their daily lives”. Wednesday’s clash was the latest incident in a sharp increase in settler land seizures and altercations with Palestinians. More than 300 military reservists signed a petition on Wednesday calling on IDF chief of staff Lieut Gen Eyal Zamir to take decisive action against what they describe as “Jewish terrorism” in the West Bank. The signatories accuse senior military commanders of failing to provide troops with the authority and tools needed to prevent repeated incidents of settler violence.“The lack of backing and direction from IDF leadership, the turning of a blind eye to Jewish terrorism and to the known places from which it emerges, and at times even support for it from the political echelon, endanger us and abandon us,” the reservists wrote.Aysha Hassan, a ​Palestinian woman who lives in one of the three besieged homes, said settlers set the outpost up four days ago and that the Palestinians have been effectively trapped there since.“They tried to break the gate,” to the house, Hassan said, “and started throwing stones at us, cursing and insulting us.”“We [are] dying of fear, extremely terrified.”The ‌West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, is home to some three million Palestinians and 500,000 settlers. There are ​some 146 settlements in the West Bank, as well as 390 smaller outposts, ​according to the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now. Most of the international community considers settlements illegal. Ramiz Alakbarov, UN deputy special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the UN security council the West Bank was at “breaking point”, saying settler violence has reached unprecedented levels, with more than 1,430 incidents in 2026.“The situation in the West Bank must be treated as an emergency requiring urgent action,” he told the session, called at the request of the European Union. Alakbarov claimed settler attacks were increasingly reported in area B of the West Bank, in which Palestinians have civilian – but not security – control under the Oslo Accords. He also said attacks were taking place in area A, which is supposed to be under full Palestinian control. Alakbarov said 3,800 Palestinian residents have been displaced due to the actions of settlers.Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, rejected the claim that Israeli settlements in the West Bank were an obstacle to peace, describing them as “strong, beautiful communities”.“The security council needs to understand one simple truth: we are not going anywhere,” he said.The World Health Organisation informed the security council there had been 98 Israeli attacks on Palestinian healthcare facilities in 2026, 37 in July alone.The statistics presented to the security council tallied with the findings of the Israeli security establishment, released this week, which reported 660 “nationalistic” attacks in six months, up significantly from last year, with an increase in Palestinian casualties. There was also a 50 per cent rise reported in settler attacks on Israeli security forces stationed in the West Bank, underlying a growing lawlessness, with very few perpetrators brought to justice.Israeli politics has moved steadily to the right in recent years and one manifestation of this has been an increase in support for increased occupation of the West Bank. A survey released on Wednesday by the Jewish People Policy Institute found that 38 per cent of Jewish Israelis support annexing all of the occupied West Bank, while 35 per cent back extending Israeli sovereignty over some of the territory. Fifty-five per cent support keeping the settlements under Israeli sovereignty in any future peace deal. – Additional reporting: Reuters