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Qusra siege sparks rebuke
Israeli settlers besieged three Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra, cutting off electricity and water after closing off the road and setting up a tent in their front yards at the weekend.
“For five nights, Israeli settlers surrounded three Palestinian homes”
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee issued a rare rebuke, calling the siege a “horrific act of terror” as the families’ food and water supplies dwindled for five nights.
In Qusra, Qusai Abu Rida was holed up inside with his teenage son when settlers cut the water and electricity, leaving them to drink well water as dozens of Israeli settlers erected tents outside.
The AP reported that Israeli troops took steps to intervene, and Reuters said Israeli troops took up positions inside Palestinian homes on Thursday after the siege began at the weekend.
The Reuters account said the United Nations reported “some 15 Palestinians including two children were trapped inside their homes with no water or electricity.”
Huckabee’s words, competing frames
Huckabee’s language drew attention because the AP described it as “a word American officials usually reserve for Palestinian militants,” while he wrote that “Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting.”
The NPR account quoted Huckabee calling the siege a “horrific act of terror,” and said settlers gathered near the home in Qusra and harassed those inside despite efforts by the Israeli military to defuse the situation.
Reuters described the siege as aimed at forcing Palestinians from their land, with the mayor Abed Al Athem Wadi saying Israeli troops were still holding positions in three Qusra homes by Thursday evening.
The AP reported that on Thursday, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as “terrorists,” and that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had given unprecedented support for Israeli settlement over the years.
In the Reuters account, Loui Ridi said, “It is terrifying, frustration, fear of my family for their lives,” as he watched developments on security cameras installed in his Qusra home.
What happens next in Qusra
The siege triggered military actions and shifting control, with Reuters saying the military statement declared that Qusra residents would remain in their homes and that “soldiers will not operate inside the Palestinian family's home” near the evacuated tent site.
“soldiers will not operate inside the Palestinian family's home”
The AP reported that Israel’s military condemned the siege as “illegal, reprehensible, and unacceptable,” declared Qusra a closed military zone, and said troops dismantled “two illegal outposts” in Qusra and a nearby village while detaining one Israeli.
Reuters also said soldiers informed families that operations in Qusra may last until Sunday, and the mayor Abed Al Athem Wadi said troops were still holding positions in three homes by Thursday evening.
The AP reported that Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi said Israeli forces evacuated more than a dozen homes to take up positions in the village, while the settlers remained elsewhere in the village.
As the standoff continued, the AP said it was “still not clear when families in the besieged area will be able to get basic supplies and what would happen to their homes,” even as the military said families had basic supplies like food and water when it checked in on them on Wednesday.
