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Qusra attacks and detentions
Dozens of masked Israeli settler militants attacked homes surrounding the occupied West Bank village of Qusra on Saturday, throwing stones while seven Palestinians were trapped inside, according to witnesses Reuters spoke to.
“throwing stones while seven Palestinians were trapped inside”
Israeli forces fired tear gas into the home and detained the residents while letting Saddam Oday go, while Luay Bayruti said the military handcuffed, blindfolded and beat those inside before later releasing them, Reuters reported.
In a separate incident in the West Bank, Haaretz reported that far-right Israeli lawmaker Tzvi Succot took a sledgehammer to a Palestinian memorial Tuesday in the West Bank south of Haaretz.com, and he confirmed to Haaretz that the action was carried out in full coordination with the Israeli military.
The BBC described Netanyahu’s condemnation after dozens of settlers attacked Qusra, saying the prime minister called the violence “criminal acts of violence” committed by “a small group of lawless troublemakers,” while residents and the Israeli army described raids in Qusra and Jalud as Palestinians were inside homes.
Netanyahu, Herzog, and no arrests
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence in Qusra and Jalud as the work of “a handful of rioters,” and the BBC quoted his statement that the settlers were “a small number of troublemakers who break the law.”
President Isaac Herzog condemned the violence as a “red line violation by lawbreakers who act in direct contradiction to the laws and values of the State of Israel,” and he urged the government and law-enforcement authorities to act “by all available means and with full coordination to eradicate this despicable phenomenon.”
Despite Netanyahu’s and Herzog’s statements, CNN reported that authorities had yet to announce any arrests as of Sunday evening, even as it described settlers surrounding the home of Louay Adli and throwing stones while the army “watched and did nothing” before firing tear gas.
CNN also reported that Netanyahu’s spokesman Doron Spielman said the actions “violate the law; they endanger both Jews and Arabs,” and that he said Netanyahu requested security forces “apprehend the perpetrators and to bring them to justice.”
Broader pattern and stakes
The Intercept reported that shortly before midnight on August 4 Israeli settlers arrived at the home of Loui Abu Ridi in the village of Qusra, and that after the Israeli military took action, the workers installing a fence would end up arrested while the settlers who were trespassing roamed freely, according to security camera footage reviewed by The Intercept.
““The army was complicit with the settlers. They were the ones who attacked us”
Qusai Abu Ridi told The Intercept, “The army was complicit with the settlers. They were the ones who attacked us, and we were the ones who were mistreated,” and he said he watched the incident live through the security camera feed until it cut out.
Al Jazeera described a wave of coordinated Israeli settler attacks across the occupied West Bank over the weekend, including dozens of settlers attacking a Palestinian home in Qusra with tear gas and stones and injuring seven people, while also describing a 20-day siege on al-Mughayyir as a “systematic policy of forced displacement and colonial expansion.”
In the same Al Jazeera report, Ehab Jabareen said Netanyahu was pursuing a “political surgical isolation process” to shield the broader settlement project from international scrutiny, and he warned that Netanyahu’s equation put “500,000 legitimate settlers” alongside “a few dozen deviants or anomalies.”