More troops to be sent to West Bank village besieged by Israeli settlers

What the report says

The BBC reports that the Israeli military plans to send more troops to Qusra, a village in the occupied West Bank near Nablus, after failing to remove Israeli settlers who have reportedly trapped two Palestinian families in their homes since Sunday. The Abu Ridi and Hassan families say they have been unable to leave their houses on the village outskirts, with water and electricity cut off and food supplies running low.

According to the BBC, the situation escalated after settlers blocked access to the homes and set the families under siege. Video from the area showed Israeli security vehicles and later a line of forces on a road leading to the village, which authorities have declared a closed military zone. The report says the first soldiers at the scene were later criticized after video showed them praying with settlers, and the Israeli army said disciplinary action would follow.

The BBC says a later attempt by Israeli forces to clear the settlers led to confrontations but did not succeed. Local residents and the village mayor described the incident as part of a wider pattern of attacks on Qusra and surrounding Palestinian communities. The report places the events in the context of rising settler violence in the West Bank and ongoing disputes over settlements, which are widely regarded as illegal under international law, though Israel disputes that view.