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More than 100 Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Jalud in the occupied West Bank, preventing a family from returning to homes that settlers had seized weeks earlier, according to the BBC.
Two houses belonging to the al-Tubasi family were set on fire during the raid on Monday night. Settlers also attacked Israeli security forces, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“It was extremely terrifying, beyond words. It’s hard to imagine the situation,” 60-year-old Mahmoud al-Tubasi told the BBC. “My feeling now is that I am happy to have escaped death. I genuinely expected they were going to kill us.”
Family escorted by Israeli forces
Al-Tubasi, his wife Aida, 51, and their 33-year-old son Wael returned to their properties under military escort after Israel’s High Court ruled earlier this month that they should be allowed to go home.
The family had left Jalud, south of Nablus, during the summer after weeks of harassment and attacks by settlers. Extremist settlers had established an illegal outpost near the village and besieged three houses, including two belonging to the couple’s married sons.
Al-Tubasi said Israeli officials contacted him around midnight and told him that his family could reclaim the properties immediately alongside the army and border police.
When the family inspected one house by torchlight, they found extensive damage. Doors had been smashed, electrical fittings removed, tiles torn out and windows broken. Rubbish was scattered throughout the property, while the toilet appeared to have been smashed and filled with human waste.
Settlers set fire to homes and car
Alerts posted in WhatsApp groups used by settlers to coordinate activities reportedly prompted a large number of them to travel to Jalud and try to stop the family’s return.
“As soon as we entered the house, which had already been completely destroyed, settlers started throwing stones at us,” al-Tubasi said. He added that the army used tear gas but was unable to control the crowd, which he estimated at more than 150 people.
Israeli soldiers protected the family as settlers attempted to approach them, using pepper spray to push the attackers back, al-Tubasi said. Settlers then slashed the tyres of a military van carrying the family, who were later moved into an armoured vehicle.
As the family was driven away, settlers set fire to their car and both houses. The family did not complete its return to the properties.
The IDF said more than 100 Israeli rioters were present in the village, blocking roads, burning tyres and throwing stones at security forces. Three police officers suffered minor injuries and a security vehicle was damaged, it said.
The military described the al-Tubasi family as victims of “nationalist crime” and said the operation was halted because of the violence.
Calls for action against settler violence
The head of Jalud’s local council said clashes also spread to a nearby village, where settlers assaulted a Palestinian woman and set fire to her home.
Aida al-Tubasi was attacked and injured by masked settlers one month ago, along with American journalists who were interviewing her in Jalud.
Israel’s High Court had ordered that the family be safely returned home by 20 September. The ruling criticised authorities for failing to address settler violence, calling the attacks “a completely unacceptable phenomenon” inconsistent with Israel’s stated values as a Jewish and democratic state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned attacks on security forces and urged law enforcement authorities to prosecute those responsible. Israeli police said they had arrested three people suspected of involvement.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly last week, Netanyahu rejected international criticism of settler violence and described the perpetrators as “a handful of juvenile delinquents”.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din says fewer than 3% of police investigations into settler violence over the past two decades have resulted in convictions. Its executive director, Ziv Stahl, said the lack of effective enforcement reflected what she described as a systematic policy to displace Palestinians and expand Israeli control over land in the West Bank.
According to the United Nations, settler violence in the West Bank has reached record levels this year. More than 6,500 Palestinians have been displaced since 2023 because of settler attacks and access restrictions, while the UN humanitarian office, OCHA, has recorded 6,199 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage.
OCHA says at least 82 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank this year, including at least 23 in incidents linked to settler attacks. Four Israelis, including security personnel and civilians, have also been killed.
