Israeli settlers besieged three Palestinian families in Qusra, and the US ambassador said Washington asked Israel to remove them

Dozens of Israeli settlers surrounded the homes of three Palestinian families in the village of Qusra in the West Bank, cutting off water, electricity and essential supplies since Sunday, Al Jazeera reported. One of the besieged homes belongs to a dual United States citizen. According to residents and local officials, settlers threw stones, tried to bring down a stone wall near one house, and prevented occupants from leaving despite dwindling supplies, even as the Israeli military attempted to defuse the standoff. Al Jazeera also published video from the scene showing the families confined inside.

The United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, sharpened his criticism as the siege continued. Where he had earlier called the actions repulsive, according to the Israeli daily Ynet, he wrote on the social platform X that the episode was a horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass the family, language multiple outlets, including NPR, reported him using on Thursday. Ynet had already framed the episode as diplomatic damage for Israel, noting that the criticism came from an ambassador with a long record of support for Israeli settlement, and NPR's report noted that Huckabee simultaneously defended the Israeli military's response even as he condemned the settlers.

Qusra sits south of Nablus and has been the site of repeated confrontations between residents and settlers from nearby outposts. Israeli authorities have not published a public account of the incident at the time of writing, and the settlers' representatives have not issued a statement.

The intervention by a United States ambassador remains the element that distinguishes this from previous incidents, and Huckabee's sharpened language marks a further escalation. Washington has generally left enforcement in the West Bank to Israeli authorities without public comment, and a sitting ambassador applying the word terrorism to a settler action, in explicit terms, pulls the issue further into the bilateral relationship than a private request would.