Israeli forces halt activists bringing food to besieged families

West Bank: Israeli forces blocked foreign, Israeli, and Palestinian activists from delivering food and water to three homes in the Ras al-Ain area of the occupied West Bank on Friday, August 14, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Videos from the scene show Israeli soldiers preventing the activists from reaching the Palestinian families who have been surrounded by Israeli settlers for around a week.

The activists later marched through the occupied West Bank, bringing food and water to Palestinians who have been under siege by Israeli settlers for days.

Al Jazeera‘s reporter said that the Israeli soldiers called in reinforcements and stopped some members of the Israeli activist group Peace Now from going near the Palestinian houses. They declared the area a closed military zone.

Abdel Azim Wadi, Mayor of Qusra, told Wafa that Israeli forces had also forced Italian activists to leave the area after they had managed to reach the homes earlier this week.

Settlers cut water, electricity to houses

The settlers began surrounding the Palestinian homes this week by blocking the roads with rocks, setting up a tent nearby, and barring residents from entering or leaving freely.

They had cut water and electricity supplies to the homes too, leaving them in a harrowing condition, struggling to get necessities, according to the United Nations. Two children are among the 15 Palestinians currently stranded in the three homes.

UN says families trapped inside in terror

The UN said the residents were “trapped inside their homes in a state of terror, unable to attend to their basic needs and without access to water or electricity.”

The Israeli forces had even ordered the families to temporarily leave their homes. The residents, however, refused to move and gathered in one of the houses, fearing their homes could be captured.

According to the Al Jazeera reporter, on Friday, settlers tried to erect a tent again and set up an outpost near the families’ homes before the Israeli forces removed it.

The UN has described Qusra as a major flashpoint of settler violence in the northern occupied West Bank, stating that it recorded more settler attacks in the area than in any other West Bank community.

The standoff in the northern West Bank town of Qusra is the latest in a wave of settler violence convulsing the territory, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and which would make up part of a future Palestinian state.

Defence Minister Israel Katz instructed the army to prepare a plan to transfer power to the police to enforce civilian-related matters, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.