Extract from ABC News
One of the Palestinians hunkered in one of the besieged houses says their situation is "dire". (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
In short:
Palestinians who are trapped in homes in a West Bank community say the Israeli military is complicit in settlers' attempts to force them from their land.
Violence has been on the uptick in recent days as US ambassador Mike Huckabee slams the settlers as "thugs".
Members of Israel's security establishment are accusing the Israeli military of failing to properly defuse tensions.
A group of Palestinians in a small West Bank village have spent almost a week under siege from Israeli settlers, as community members accuse the Israeli military of being complicit in the saga.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has labelled the settlers "Israeli terrorists" and demanded they be removed from the area, which is home to many Palestinian-American citizens.
Groups of Israeli settlers have been attacking homes on the edge of Qusra, roughly 50 kilometres north of Jerusalem, for months as they try to intimidate families into abandoning the properties.
The intensity of the attacks has increased in recent days, with power and water cut to the Palestinian properties.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had sent soldiers to the area, saying they were there to dismantle "illegal outposts". But the settlers remained, forcing the military to deploy more troops.
The ABC spoke to one of the Palestinians hunkered down in one of the houses, Qusai Abu Ridi, on a scratchy phone line from a vantage point overlooking the homes.
"The situation we are in is dire," he said.
"We don't have the basic essentials.
"The settlers are terrorising us at night until 2 or 3am. They attack the house and throw stones at us.
"Since Sunday, no-one can visit us other than the Red Cross that took our daughter to the hospital. Our situation is tragic."
The West Bank community of Qusra has been the site of repeated settler attacks on Palestinian residents. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
Qusai was forced to move into the vacant home of his brother, a Palestinian-American still in the US, as the settlers advanced.
He was then forced to move again.
"At 10 in the morning [an army officer] told me, 'This house, you must evacuate it,'" he said.
Qusai and his family moved to another house, which the IDF also demanded be evacuated soon after.
When the ABC spoke to him, he was in a third house. Local community leaders believed about a dozen people were sheltering there together.
Hours later, the IDF announced "soldiers were instructed that the Qusra residents will remain in their homes".
"Furthermore, the soldiers will not operate inside the Palestinian family's home located near the site where the tent that was evacuated and dismantled had been erected."
Qusai reported only some families had been allowed to return to their homes, and posted a photo near his property of settlers loitering outside.
Settlers remained nearby after some of the Palestinian families were allowed to return. (Supplied)
One of the others in the homes, Ruqiya Hasan, recorded a voice note for the community and its supporters.
"If we are martyred, we request to be buried in our home, so it would be a witness to the crimes of the settlers against us and against the Palestinian people," she said.
IDF troops pray with settlers
CCTV footage shows Jewish settlers throwing rocks on the road in Qusra on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Vision shared by the families showed the settlers' rampage as they threw rocks at the homes and tried to dismantle a stone wall.
When Israeli soldiers first arrived, some were spotted praying with the settlers.
Israeli settlers and people in military uniforms were seen outside a Palestinian's house in Qusra on footage taken on Monday. (Reuters)
More troops were sent to the area in what was described as an attempt to disperse the settlers. During that operation, tear gas was used to force them to leave.
It provided brief respite for the Palestinians in the homes, but the settlers returned hours later.
Mr Huckabee posted on X: "The IDF & Israel Police have gone at our request to remove the Israeli terrorists doing this."
"The actions of those doing this to this family's home is criminal," he said.
"Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting.
"No excuse for such thuggish behavior."
Abed Al Hakim Wadi is casting doubt on Israeli military claims of a crackdown on the settlers. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
In a separate post, Mr Huckabee wrote it was inaccurate to say Israel had not acted to protect the Palestinians. He also shared video of Israeli forces driving through Qusra towards where the settlers were camped.
But Qusra community leader Abed Al Hakim Wadi said it was all talk.
"When they say the embassy of America in Jerusalem talk with the Israelis and to the government to stop the settlers who attack this area and surrounding the houses, and that the life of this family is in danger, this is just for the media," he said.
"They didn't do anything to the settlers, [it's] just in the media.
"They told [us they would] send 200 soldiers to Qusra and a bulldozer, and they will arrest the settlers and will send him to the prison, to the court — it's just in the media, in fact, no nothing [has been done]."
In a later social media post, Mr Huckabee said "settlers" were not the problem, but "unsettlers" were. He described them as a "very small minority who do great damage to Palestinian families & to Israel".
Mr Huckabee has long backed the Israeli settler movement, and has also expressed support for Israel annexing parts of the West Bank.
Attacks grow in scale
Israeli media has reported the IDF is stretched thin across the West Bank, as it struggles to deal with the threat to security caused by settlers in the territory.
Members of the security establishment, outside of the IDF, have accused it of a PR stunt in Qusra and of failing to properly defuse the situation.
Key members of Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, including Itamar Ben Gvir, center, and Bezalel Smotrich, right, have voiced support for settlers trying to drive Palestinians from their homes. (Reuters: Maya Alleruzzo/Pool)
The Netanyahu coalition government, often referred to as the most right-wing in Israeli history, stands accused of supporting and encouraging the settlers.
Cabinet ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir — both settlers themselves and subject to sanctions from governments around the world, including Australia — have promoted settlement expansion and efforts to force Palestinians to flee.
That political backing, combined with the growing number of settlers serving in the IDF as its reserves are drawn on to serve in places like Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, has fuelled a fear in the Palestinian community that the military allows the settlers to act with impunity.
There are estimated to be more than half a million Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, and another 200,000 in East Jerusalem.
Palestinian communities in the West Bank are increasingly accusing Israeli settlers of trying to force them from their homes amid an uptick in violence. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
Their occupation of the land has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in a ruling not recognised by the Israeli government.
There are 146 official settlements, 163 outposts and 237 settler farms across the West Bank, according to the organisation Peace Now.
Many are established close to Palestinian communities, with some outposts effectively encircling towns and villages.
It is not the first time Qusra has been targeted in recent times.
Late last month, the ABC documented the aftermath of a settler firebombing of a mosque on the other side of the village.
Graffiti reading "revenge" in Hebrew was spray painted on the building.
A partially constructed mosque in Qusra has previously been attacked and set on fire. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
It followed a shooting incident roughly 30 kilometres away in the village of Tell, where two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed.
The settlers accused the Palestinians of attacking them, while the Palestinians said it was the Israelis who were the armed aggressors.
That triggered days of violence across the West Bank and a major Israeli military crackdown, as the IDF claimed to be targeting Palestinian "terrorists".
Again, the community in the West Bank argued they were being blamed for defending themselves from settlers.
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