Putri Anggraini
Israeli settlers set fire to two Palestinian homes in the village of Jalud in the northern occupied West Bank overnight, forcing a family that had just returned under an Israeli court order to flee again, according to local sources who spoke to Turkey's Anadolu news agency on Tuesday.
The two houses belonged to the Tubasi family, who had attempted to move back into their properties only hours earlier after nearly two months of displacement. The family had been forced out of Jalud in July following repeated harassment and violence at the hands of settlers, and their return was made possible by a court ruling that recognized their right to the premises.
Instead of finding their homes intact, the Tubasis discovered widespread destruction. Homeowner Mahmoud Tubasi told Anadolu that settlers had taken over the property while the family was away, preventing its owners from gaining access. The settlers came back during the night and set the structures alight, rendering them uninhabitable, he said.
Villagers attempted to confront the attackers before Israeli forces arrived at the scene, according to the accounts provided to Anadolu. The resulting fires caused extensive damage to both homes and spread panic throughout the community.
The sources further alleged that Israeli troops protected the settlers and dispatched additional military reinforcements to the area. They said Israeli forces compelled members of the Tubasi family to evacuate at gunpoint once again, undoing the return that had been arranged through the courts.
In its own account, the Israeli military said more than 100 settlers rioted in Jalud overnight. It claimed the rioters blocked roads, set tyres on fire and threw stones at security personnel, preventing Israeli forces from carrying out the coordinated return of a displaced Palestinian family to its home. The military said soldiers and Israel Border Police units operated in the area to disperse the Israeli rioters and protect local residents, and acknowledged that "due to the violence, the mission to return the family to their home was not completed."
The incident in Jalud is part of a broader and accelerating pattern of settler violence across the occupied territory. Such attacks have grown steadily since the eruption of Israel's war on Gaza in October 2023, but the source material notes that pogroms have intensified significantly over the past year.
Data compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs illustrates the scale of the problem. Between January and late July, the agency recorded more than 1,330 settler-related attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank — an average of six per day and the fastest pace documented in roughly two decades.
Settler groups, frequently supported or shielded by Israeli soldiers, have targeted Palestinians through shootings, the besieging of homes and other forms of communal violence that experts have characterized as pogroms. Israeli settlements constructed on occupied Palestinian land are illegal under international law, a position long upheld by the vast majority of states.
The violence on Tuesday was not confined to Jalud. In a separate assault, local sources told Anadolu that Israeli settlers broke into the home of an elderly Palestinian woman in Qaryut, south of Nablus, and attacked her. A video recorded by volunteer medic Bashar al-Qaryuti showed the woman with bruises on her hand and head. She said a group of settlers broke down the door of the house before assaulting her.
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 said the assailants targeted three homes and set fire to another house belonging to a Palestinian detainee.
International humanitarian organizations have repeatedly raised alarm about the deteriorating situation. On Monday, Julien Lerisson, who heads the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation for Israel and the occupied territory, called for an end to what he described as frequent and severe violence. He stressed that authorities bear responsibility for protecting the population, including when the violence is inflicted by settlers, and that international humanitarian law governing the protection of private and public property, as well as access to essential services, must be respected.
The mounting violence has also drawn criticism from some Israeli allies. In August, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as "terrorists," warning that such acts cause serious damage to Israel's international image. The remarks were notable given Washington's customary reluctance to criticize settler activity in such blunt terms.
The pressure has extended to the multilateral level as well. In June, 14 United Nations special rapporteurs warned that the sharp rise in what they called "settler terror," carried out with state support and complicity in occupied Palestinian territory, poses an existential threat to Palestinian communities. Their assessment underscored concerns that the violence is not episodic but systemic, and that it is steadily eroding the viability of Palestinian life across large swaths of the West Bank.
For the Tubasi family, the practical consequences are immediate and severe. Having already endured nearly two months of displacement, they now face the destruction of the homes they fought through the courts to reclaim, with no clear prospect of return. The case highlights a recurring dynamic in the territory: even when Palestinian families secure legal victories, those rulings are difficult to enforce in the face of settler resistance and, according to Palestinian accounts, insufficient protection from Israeli security forces.
As night fell again on Jalud, residents were left to assess the damage and weigh the risks of remaining. The burned structures belonging to the Tubasi family stand as the latest visible marker of a conflict that, by the numbers compiled by humanitarian agencies, is unfolding at a pace unmatched in a generation.
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