West Bank29 September, 20263 min read
Israeli Settlers Attack Jalud Village, Block Al-Tubasi Family Return in West Bank
Over 100 settlers attacked Jalud, burned Tubasi family homes, and blocked their return. Israeli military and Border Police intervened to prevent harm during the attempted return.
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Jalud return blocked
Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Jalud in the northern occupied West Bank, setting fire to homes and vehicles and blocking roads as Israeli forces tried to escort a Palestinian family back to their seized property. The BBC reported that the al-Tubasi family, including Mahmoud al-Tubasi, his wife Aida, and their 33-year-old son Wael, returned with Israeli forces after Israel's High Court ruled earlier this month that they must be allowed to go back, but the family’s return was stopped when settlers threw stones and the army fired tear gas. The Israeli military said more than 100 settlers rioted in Jalud overnight, preventing Israeli forces from facilitating the return of a displaced Palestinian family by blocking roads, setting tyres on fire and throwing stones at security forces.
The Israeli military added that “Due to the violence, the mission to return the family to their home was not completed,” while the BBC described the family as finding extensive damage after settlers had already destroyed the home by torchlight. The attack also drew condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called on law enforcement “to prosecute the rioters to the fullest extent of the law,” according to the BBC.
Herzog and the Red Cross
President Isaac Herzog planned to visit the Judea and Samaria Division headquarters near Beit El, meet with Division Commander Brig. Gen. Kobi Heller, and deliver a statement about settler violence.
Herzog said on X that law enforcement authorities must act “decisively” against settlement extremists who rioted overnight in Jalud, torching property, clashing with troops and preventing a Palestinian family from returning to the home they were violently evicted from.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said violence, movement restrictions and accelerating Israeli settlement expansion were making living conditions increasingly “intolerable” for Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
ICRC head Julien Lerisson warned that “(Israeli) authorities have a responsibility to protect the population from violence, including when that violence is inflicted by settlers,” and the ICRC said movement restrictions were preventing patients from reaching health care and children from attending school.
The ICRC also said ambulances were sometimes held for hours at checkpoints and roadblocks or forced to take longer routes to avoid road closures and violence, making it harder for first responders to reach people in need.
Escalation and displacement
Al Jazeera’s interactive display on its screen, presented by Mohammad Ramal, said UN reports confirm that 6,200 assaults have been carried out by settlers since October 7, 2023, and that the attacks displaced more than 6,000 Palestinians and injured 5,728 others. The same Al Jazeera account said settlers uprooted 88,000 olive trees, and it described closures and checkpoints as Israel imposed a comprehensive closure on the occupied West Bank for a week under the pretext of the 'Jewish Feast of Sukkot'. The ICRC said the humanitarian impact of the violence was “overwhelming,” and it warned that movement restrictions were pushing families and entire communities into “increasingly intolerable conditions in which to live.”
The Al-Jazira Net report prepared for Al Jazeera said attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank were escalating in tandem with expansion of settlements, with Palestinian properties and fields burned and roads and areas closed. The Al-Jazira Net report also cited Haaretz data that about 50 American organizations diverted roughly $224 million to the occupied territories through Israeli organizations over five years, and it said UN figures in the report revealed 6,199 settler attacks and the displacement of about 6,500 Palestinians from the West Bank since 2023.