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Israeli settlers set fire to two Palestinian homes in the northern occupied West Bank village of Jalud, local sources reported Tuesday, in an attack that unfolded just hours after a displaced family had attempted to return to their property under an Israeli court decision. The assault marks the latest episode in what observers describe as an intensifying campaign of settler violence across the territory.
The two residences belonged to the Tubasi family, who had been forced out of Jalud approximately two months earlier amid repeated harassment and physical attacks by settlers. According to accounts provided to Turkey's Anadolu news agency, the family briefly managed to re-enter their homes following the court ruling, only to find the properties extensively damaged by settlers who had occupied the structures and barred the owners from entering.
Homeowner Mahmoud Tubasi told Anadolu that the settlers came back during the night and set the houses alight, destroying them and leaving them uninhabitable. The fires inflicted heavy damage on both structures, spreading fear throughout the surrounding community, according to local sources.
Residents of Jalud attempted to confront the attackers before Israeli military forces reached the scene, the sources added. According to their accounts, Israeli soldiers provided protection to the settlers and dispatched additional reinforcements to the area. The sources further stated that Israeli forces compelled members of the Tubasi family to evacuate once again at gunpoint.
In its own account, the Israeli military said that more than 100 settlers rioted in Jalud overnight, obstructing efforts by Israeli forces to facilitate the family's return by blocking roads, igniting tires and hurling stones at security personnel. The military stated that soldiers and Israel Border Police units operated in the area to disperse the rioters and protect local residents, noting that the family's return had been coordinated in advance. "Due to the violence, the mission to return the family to their home was not completed," the military added.
The competing narratives highlight the contested nature of such incidents, which have become a near-daily occurrence in the occupied territory. Palestinian residents and local sources consistently describe Israeli forces as either standing by during settler attacks or actively participating alongside the attackers, while the military maintains that its personnel work to maintain order and protect civilians.
The violence in Jalud was not an isolated event. In a separate incident on Tuesday, local sources told Anadolu that Israeli settlers assaulted an elderly Palestinian woman after breaking into her home in Qaryut, a village south of Nablus. A video recorded by volunteer medic Bashar al-Qaryuti showed the woman with bruises to her hand and head. According to the accounts, a group of settlers forced open the door of the residence before attacking her.
Meanwhile, in al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah in the central West Bank, settlers attacked Palestinian homes and property as Israeli army forces raided the village and detained a young man. Witnesses told Anadolu that the attackers targeted three homes and set fire to another residence belonging to a Palestinian detainee.
The scale of settler-related violence has drawn mounting concern from international organizations. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs documented more than 1,330 settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank between January and late July of this year, an average of six per day and the fastest rate recorded in roughly two decades. Settler groups, frequently supported or shielded by Israeli soldiers, have employed tactics including shooting, besieging homes and other forms of communal violence that experts have characterized as pogroms.
Julien Lerisson, who heads the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation for Israel and the occupied territory, addressed the escalating settler activity on Monday. "The frequent and severe violence must be brought to an end," he said. "Authorities have a responsibility to protect the population from violence, including when that violence is inflicted by settlers. What international humanitarian law says on the protection of private and public property and on the population's access to essential services must be respected."
The international legal framework governing the situation is unambiguous regarding the settlements themselves. Israeli settlements constructed on occupied Palestinian land are illegal under international law, a position affirmed repeatedly by the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and the vast majority of states. Nonetheless, settlement expansion has continued, accompanied by a corresponding rise in attacks on nearby Palestinian communities.
The violence has also drawn criticism from some quarters within Israel's closest ally. In August, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described Israeli settlers involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as "terrorists," cautioning that such acts cause serious damage to Israel's international standing. His remarks represented a notable departure from the typically muted American response to settler violence.
The warnings have extended beyond diplomatic channels. In June, 14 UN special rapporteurs jointly cautioned that the sharp increase in what they termed "settler terror," carried out with state support and complicity in occupied Palestinian territory, posed an existential threat to Palestinian communities. The experts emphasized that the combination of state-backed violence and impunity created conditions that made normal life untenable for many Palestinian villages.
The broader context of the violence is the sustained escalation that began after October 2023, when Israel launched its war on Gaza. While international attention has focused primarily on the devastation in Gaza, where the death toll has surpassed tens of thousands, violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has grown steadily and, according to the United Nations, intensified significantly this year. Palestinian communities across the territory report that attacks have become more frequent, more brazen and more destructive.
For the Tubasi family, the consequence is a second displacement in as many months. Having left their homes in July under pressure from settler harassment, they briefly returned only to watch their properties burn. With the houses now destroyed and uninhabitable, and with Israeli forces having forced them out once more, their prospects for returning remain uncertain. The pattern in Jalud mirrors that in villages across the West Bank, where court orders and legal protections have proven insufficient to guarantee Palestinians' access to their own homes in the face of organized settler campaigns.
The attacks on Tuesday illustrate the multiplicity of pressures facing Palestinian communities: arson, physical assault, military raids and detention occurring in parallel across different areas of the territory. For residents of Jalud, Qaryut and al-Mughayyir, the violence represents not an aberration but a continuation of a trajectory that humanitarian organizations have documented for months without corresponding accountability or protection.
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