U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee condemned Israeli settlers for besieging three homes in the West Bank, including one owned by a Palestinian American.
In an Aug. 12 post on X, Huckabee said the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem “has been VERY involved & the IDF & Israel Police have gone at our request to remove the Israeli terrorists doing this.”
He called the actions of the settlers “criminal.”
“Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting,” he said. “No excuse for such thuggish behavior.”
According to local officials, Palestinian American homeowner Loui Ridi’s and his brother’s houses were surrounded by settlers, sometimes numbering dozens, in the village of Qusra starting on Sunday.
The settlers, they said, threw stones, tried to demolish a nearby stone wall, and stopped the residents from leaving despite them running low on food and water.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have become involved in an attempt to bring about calm.
They moved Ridi’s brother, Qusai Abu Rida, on Aug. 13 to another home after he and his teenage son stayed in their house to defend it.
Qusai Abu Rida and his son are unable to leave the area, which is about 10 miles from Nablus, a Palestinian city.
The IDF said that it detained one Israeli and took apart “two illegal outposts” close to the homes on the outskirts of Qusra and a nearby village.
Additional soldiers were deployed to “carry out defensive missions and patrols,” according to the military.
Israeli soldiers have evacuated and occupied six homes in Qusra, including the three homes that were besieged by settlers, according to the town’s mayor, Abed Al Athem Wadi.
In a statement, the United Nations said that some 15 Palestinians, including two children, were “being trapped inside their homes in a state of terror, unable to attend to their basic needs and without access to water or electricity.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under fire from Palestinians and opposition leaders for not forcefully responding to settler violence in the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
The area is home to some 3 million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli settlers.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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