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Israeli forces have prevented Israeli and foreign activists from reaching Palestinian families whose homes have been surrounded by settlers for nearly a week in the occupied West Bank town of Qusra, south of Nablus.
The activists were trying to deliver food and water to three homes in the Ras al-Ain area on Friday, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
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Al Jazeera’s Laith Jaar, reporting from Qusra, said that Israeli forces brought in reinforcements and stopped members of the Israeli group Peace Now from reaching the families after declaring the area a closed military zone.
Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi told Wafa that Israeli forces had also forced Italian activists who managed to reach the homes earlier in the week to leave.
Families cut off from basic supplies
Settlers began surrounding the homes earlier this week, blocking roads with stones, erecting a tent nearby, and preventing residents from entering or leaving freely.
Water and electricity supplies to the homes have also been cut.
About 15 Palestinians, including two children, are living in the three homes and have struggled to obtain basic supplies, according to the United Nations.
The UN said they were “trapped inside their homes in a state of terror, unable to attend to their basic needs and without access to water or electricity”.
Israeli forces entered the area a day earlier and ordered the families to temporarily leave their homes. The residents refused to leave the area and instead gathered in one of the three houses, fearing their homes could be taken over if abandoned.
Jaar reported that settlers again attempted on Friday to erect a tent and establish an outpost near the homes before Israeli forces removed it.
Qusra has emerged as a flashpoint for settler violence in the northern occupied West Bank, with the UN saying earlier this year that it had recorded more settler attacks there than in any other occupied West Bank community.
Katz move raises questions over enforcement
The developments come as Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered preparations for transferring responsibility for enforcing civilian law involving settlers in the occupied West Bank from the military to the Israeli police.
Political scientist Ibrahim Rabaia told Al Jazeera that the proposed move appeared to be driven by political considerations and questioned how broadly it could be implemented.
He said the military remains responsible for the occupied West Bank under the existing system, while coordination between the army and police already takes place.
Rabaia argued that transferring responsibilities would be unlikely to result in police preventing settlers from attacking Palestinian homes.
“The police are controlled by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who arms these settlers and supports them in the West Bank,” he said.
Rabaia, an academic in political science and former managing editor of the journal Palestinian Affairs, said settlement expansion had reached an advanced stage, with infrastructure, funding and planning being put in place to create what he described as “a reality that cannot be reversed,” including new areas capable of accommodating larger numbers of settlers in the future.
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