QUSRA
\nIsrael\u2019s military said on Thursday it had sent more troops to a West Bank village where settlers have trapped Palestinian families inside their homes, a siege the Palestinians say is aimed at forcibly displacing them from their land.
\nThe siege began at the weekend when Jewish settlers closed off the road to the three homes in the Palestinian village of Qusra and set up a tent in their front yards, refusing to allow anyone to enter or leave. The settlers had earlier cut off their electricity and water.
\nIsrael\u2019s military says it is trying to disperse \u200cthe settlers from the \u200carea, even as a video from earlier in the \u200cweek showed several Israeli men in green military garb joining the settlers in a morning prayer in the tent.
\nThe military said it was taking disciplinary action against any personnel involved.
\nA day after troops deployed tear gas in a failed attempt to remove the settlers, the military said it had sent additional troops to Qusra \u201cto carry out defensive missions and patrols in the area to maintain security and protect the area.\u201d
\nThe United Nations said in a statement that some 15 Palestinians including two children were \u201cbeing trapped inside their homes in a state \u200cof terror, unable to attend to their basic needs \u200cand without access to water or electricity.\u201d
\nThe military has come \u200cunder increasing pressure to halt rogue land seizures by settlers emboldened by the right-wing government \u200cof Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has spearheaded a rapid expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.
\nThe two families under siege in the area say they have no food or medicine, and that the settlers have been damaging their property, throwing stones at their homes and shouting insulting language \u200cat them.
\n\u201cWe appeal to government institutions and to every free and honorable person to help us secure food and medicine,\u201d said Qusay Abu Reeda, a Palestinian-American who is trapped with his family inside one of the homes. The US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said the Israeli military and police \u201chave gone at our request to remove the Israeli terrorists doing this,\u201d adding: \u201cThe actions of those doing this to this family\u2019s home is criminal.\u201d
\nPalestinians say the Israeli military allows settlers to seize land and resources across the West Bank with impunity, including in areas where they hold Israel-issued ownership documents. Incidents of settler land seizures are especially common in areas on the outskirts of villages, like Qusra, which sits in an area under complete Israeli security control.
\nThe 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
QUSRA Israel\u2019s military said on Thursday it had sent more troops to a West Bank village where settlers have trapped Palestinian families inside their homes, a siege the Palestinians say is aimed at forcibly displacing them from their land. The siege began at the weekend when Jewish settlers closed off the road to the three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n