Besieged Qusra residents face severe water and food shortages
Al Jazeera Staff
Fifteen Palestinians, including two children, have been trapped for eight days in the Ras al-Ain area of Qusra, south of Nablus, as Israeli settlers and military forces cut off water, food, and electricity. UN officials describe the situation as a severe humanitarian crisis, with residents vowing to remain despite the blockade.
The siege in the Ras al-Ain area of Qusra town, south of Nablus, has entered its second week, with 15 Palestinians, including two children, trapped inside three homes. Armed Israeli settlers, backed by military battalions, have surrounded the area, completely severing supplies of food, water, and electricity.
The United Nations described residents as "trapped in their homes in horrendous conditions, unable to meet their basic needs, without water and electricity."
Severe humanitarian crisis
On Sunday, the Israeli military blocked a UNICEF convoy attempting to deliver aid to the besieged families. Two food trucks were allowed through, but a water tanker was intercepted by military forces and forced to leave the area, maintaining the severe shortage of basic resources.
The day before, settlers attacked municipal workers and a bulldozer trying to repair water and electricity lines. Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi told Al Jazeera: "We cannot restore power and water to the three besieged homes in the town."
Al Jazeera correspondent Laith Jaar, reporting from Qusra, said Israeli troops are directly involved in enforcing the blockade. "The Israeli army is supporting the settlers; they move in the area alongside the settlers to push Palestinians away and expel them from their homes," Jaar reported, describing ongoing siege operations aimed at tightening the noose around Palestinians.
Residents refuse to leave
The Israeli military has turned a hilltop home into a barracks and declared the area a closed military zone to expel international activists and members of Israel's Peace Now group. However, the military has simultaneously refused to enforce nine evacuation orders against illegal outposts established by the Hilltop Youth militia on the town's western edge in Area B — the very outposts settlers are using to besiege Palestinian homes.
Qusai Abu Reida, a besieged resident, expressed determination to Al Jazeera: "We will remain resilient and patient, even if they cut off food, nutrition, and medicine. Even if we are left with only water and salt, we have committed with our neighbors Youssef and Rizq that we will not leave here unless we become martyrs." Abu Reida affirmed: "It is impossible for us to leave this house, because it is our achievement and the fruit of our ancestral land. We will not take it lightly and hand it over to them."
Strategic terror pattern
Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, said the campaign has clear tactical and strategic goals. "The tactical goal is to seize these lands, thousands of dunams, expel the people and ethnically cleanse them from their homes through terrorist intimidation," Barghouti said. He warned of the real danger in the precedent being set for the rest of the occupied territories: "The strategic goal is to send a message to every village in the West Bank that what is happening in Qusra will happen elsewhere."
Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns at Amnesty International, stated: "What is happening in Qusra reflects an unrelenting escalation of an organized and strategic pattern of settler terrorism, permitted, backed, and funded by the Israeli state."
According to the Palestinian Committee against the Wall and Settlements, more than 300 settler outposts have been established since October 2023, while the Israeli government has advanced plans for 104 new settlements.
