From Hilltops to Houses: A New Phase of Israeli Settlement Expansion
Dalia Hatuqa On August 9, 2026, Israeli settlers surrounded three houses in the Ras al-Ain area of Qusra, a Palestinian village southeast of Nablus in the West Bank. The settlers pitched a tent just outside the homes, then cut their power lines and broke their water pipes. Fifteen people were living in the homes, including at least two children, at the time of the attack. Alarmingly, a month later, the families remain trapped in their homes. One of the besieged houses belongs to Loui Ridi, a Palestinian American who runs a gas station and car wash business in Toledo, Ohio. He has spent nearly a million dollars building the home, though the project remains unfinished. From his Ohio home, he watched the settlers surround and attack his unfinished house in Ras al-Ain on the security cameras he had installed. Ridi has reached out to the US embassy for assistance, and the White House was reportedly in contact with the Israeli government regarding the situation. So far, nothing on the ground has changed. Qusra has lived with settler violence for more than a decade. What happened in August 2026, however, differed from these previous acts of violence in one significant respect. In this case, the settlers came from an outpost right at the edge of the village itself. Established in November 2025, the settler outpost lies within Area B, the region of the West Bank over which the Palestinian Authority (PA) formally holds civil jurisdiction. This time, the settlers deviated from...
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