QUSRA: For five nights, Israeli settlers surrounded three Palestinian homes on the outskirts of a town in the occupied West Bank, preventing the families from leaving safely as their food and water supplies dwindled.
Qusai Abu Rida was holed up inside with his teenage son when settlers cut the water and electricity, leaving them to drink well water as dozens of Israeli settlers erected tents outside. His Palestinian American brother in Ohio, who owns the house, watched the siege unfold on security cameras and called for updates.
The standoff in the northern West Bank town of Qusra is the latest in a wave of settler violence convulsing the territory, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and which would make up the main part of a future Palestinian state.
On Thursday, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as “terrorists” — a word American officials usually reserve for Palestinian militants. It was an unusually sharp rebuke from the administration of US President Donald Trump, who has given unprecedented support to Israeli settlement over the years.
Mounting criticism of Israel from the United States could pose a challenge for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is trying to maintain good relations with his country’s closest ally as he mobilizes ultranationalist voters ahead of a tough battle for reelection in October.
