Settlers continue to roam West Bank villages, harass Palestinians despite massive IDF presence

Palestinians use their phones as Israeli settlers and military personnel stand outside a Palestinian home in Qusra, in the West Bank, 15 August 2026

Matan Golan reports in Haaretz on 15 August 2026:

Despite a days-long Israeli military operation to evacuate settler outposts in two Palestinian villages in the West Bank, Israeli settlers continued on Saturday to roam the area and harass local Palestinian residents.

A large number of troops have been deployed around the mountain villages of Qusra and Jalud, but they have been unable to remove the settlers from the area.

Settlers have confronted residents and prevented them from repairing facilities that the settlers had previously vandalized.  Locals said they coordinated with the military to bring Palestinian maintenance crews to two locations on the mountain to repair damaged water and electricity infrastructure.

Footage shows a group of settlers charging toward a Palestinian bulldozer between the besieged homes and the village of Qusra. Residents said soldiers were unable to control the settlers.

On the western side of the mountain, some 15 settlers were seen near another Palestinian bulldozer that had arrived to repair water infrastructure. According to reports, the operators, fearing for their safety, withdrew. An IDF force later arrived and restricted their movement, preventing the repair work from being carried out.

On Saturday evening, settlers attempted to reestablish an outpost across from Palestinian homes that had been under a week-long siege by the settlers. As has happened in recent days, soldiers arrived and removed the settlers from the homes.

However, the soldiers allowed the settlers to continue roaming the area, which has been declared a closed military zone. Some 15 settlers returned to the same location Saturday morning. Shortly afterward, they were seen at another point on the mountaintop alongside an Israeli security vehicle, which, according to footage, did not interact with them.

On Saturday morning, dozens of activists from several left-wing organizations arrived at the homes, bringing supplies to the families under siege. Knesset member Ofer Cassif (Hadash-Ta’al) also arrived, but troops initially stopped him on his way in, presenting him with an order declaring the area a closed military zone.  Cassif said he was allowed to enter only after the head of the Knesset Guard intervened, after which the lawmaker managed to deliver the supplies to the families. Senior military officers oversaw the troops’ handling of the situation while the activists were in the area.

Mount Ein Anya and the Tel Talpiot outpost – from which the besieging settlers are operating – are located about two kilometers inside Area B and overlook the villages of Jalud, Qusra, Talfit, Qaryut, Jurish and Qabalan. Despite the military’s activity this week, settlers have remained in the area around the villages.

The IDF said in its statement on the evacuation of the outposts that one person was detained, but a source familiar with the details told Haaretz that he was later released.

As shown in numerous videos filmed in the area in recent days, security forces have refrained from detaining or arresting settlers and have not escorted them beyond the boundaries of the extensive closed military zone.  As a result, settlers have remained on the mountain in full view of the forces, using Palestinian structures and infrastructure within the area covered by the closure order.

Ziv Stahl, CEO of Yesh Din, an organization that represents Palestinian families in the area, was asked in an interview with CNN why the military does not arrest the settlers or physically remove them from the area.

“I think Qusra is an extreme manifestation of the Israeli policy in the West Bank,” Stahl said. “We have settler violence and settlement expansion, which enjoys or is met with impunity and support by the government. As you know, settler violence is expanding, is going to areas that we haven’t seen it before and is met with no accountability whatsoever.”

According to Stahl, “Ninety-four percent of police investigation files are closed without charges being pressed. And as usual, both the army and the military are evading the responsibility to protect the Palestinians and to enforce the law, to keep the law and the order in the West Bank.  And it’s not a matter of capability of the military or the police,” she added. “It’s actually a matter of will. The Israeli leadership is driving this policy because it believes it serves its goals, its bigger goals, to annex the West Bank, to empty the West Bank from its Palestinian population.”

“And this is basically leading a policy of ethnic cleansing, wanting to control maximum land with as minimum Palestinian population as possible,” she said.

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