LAGOS, Nigeria. (Voice Of Naija) The United States Ambassador to Israel has called Israeli settlers besieging Palestinian families in an occupied West Bank village “Israeli terrorists”, in an extraordinary rebuke from one of Israel’s most longstanding American allies.
Three Palestinian families have entered their fourth consecutive day trapped inside their own homes, with dwindling supplies of food, water and electricity.
The siege began on Sunday, August 10, in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, when dozens of Israeli settlers surrounded the homes of three Palestinian families on the village’s outskirts, blocking all entrances with large stones, cutting off water and electricity and preventing anyone from entering or leaving.
According to Al Jazeera, Israeli soldiers had been present throughout but failed to disperse the settlers despite multiple interventions.
US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, a longtime ally of Israel’s settler movement who has historically expressed support for Israeli control over the occupied West Bank, broke sharply from that position on Thursday.
“This is a horrific act of terror,” Huckabee posted on X, condemning the settlers’ actions against the Palestinian families.
Haaretz confirmed that Huckabee went further in subsequent statements, calling the settlers “Israeli terrorists” and saying the US Embassy in Jerusalem had formally asked Israeli security forces to remove them.
He described the situation as “criminal,” even as he defended the Israeli military’s broader response.
Among those besieged are Qusai Abu Rida and his 18-year-old son Ahmed, relatives of Loai Ridi, 46, an American-Palestinian originally from Qusra who now lives in Toledo, Ohio.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from the United States, Ridi said he had been watching the siege unfold through security cameras he had installed in the home he built in the village.
“He does not want to leave the home. Because if he leaves, the settlers will take over immediately,” Ridi said of his brother. “It’s really very, very difficult. He just told me, ‘I only have supplies for two to three days left.”
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According to The Times of Israel, a second family, Youssef Hassan, his wife and their two young daughters aged two and four, were also trapped inside their home by the same group of settlers. A third family, the Abu Rida household, was under simultaneous siege.
According to Al Jazeera, Aisha Abu Rida from inside her home said: “We are surrounded by settlers, but we are steadfast, God willing.
We will not leave our home, no matter what happens. Despite the water and electricity being cut off, we will remain steadfast.”
According to Turkey’s Anadolu news agency, the mayor of Qusra had been informed by the Israeli army that the military operation in the area would continue until Sunday morning, meaning the families faced the prospect of remaining besieged through the weekend.
Qusra is no stranger to settler attacks. According to the Times of Israel, settler terror attacks in the West Bank surged by 63 per cent in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025.
Last month, a mosque in Qusra was set on fire in an apparent settler attack, an incident that followed the killing of an Israeli settler nearby and triggered violence that left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian villagers dead.
The current siege reflects a broader pattern that Palestinian residents and international observers say has intensified under Israel’s current coalition government.
Settlers have been building more outposts across the West Bank in what the United Nations and many governments have condemned as a deliberate effort to fragment Palestinian territory and dismantle any remaining prospect of a viable Palestinian state.
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Palestinians and the Israeli opposition have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government of turning a blind eye to settler attacks against Palestinians as violence has surged in recent years.
The Qusra siege resonates within a context of longstanding African solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Nigeria has consistently supported Palestinian statehood at the United Nations, and the African Union has repeatedly called for Israeli compliance with international law in the occupied territories.
The fact that even a Trump-appointed ambassador, one historically sympathetic to Israel’s settler movement, has been forced to condemn this siege as terrorism speaks to the scale of what is unfolding in Qusra.
For Abuja, it is a moment that reinforces Nigeria’s diplomatic position and calls for continued vocal support for Palestinian families who are fighting, literally from inside their own homes, for the right to remain on their own land.
