Dozens of Israeli settlers burst into a Palestinian man’s house in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, trapping and attacking people inside, the Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses said. It was the latest in a series of ***aults by Israeli extremists that have drawn international condemnation.
The attack took place near the Palestinian town of Qusra in the northern West Bank, where groups of Israeli settlers recently besieged the homes of several other Palestinians, including an American citizen. Violence has snowballed in the Israeli-occupied territory over the past several months, with Palestinians saying the Israeli authorities frequently look the other way.
But the intensity of Saturday’s ***ault drew a rare condemnation from Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who has largely played down the attacks as the actions of a small minority.
The Israeli military said soldiers were sent to both Qusra and nearby Jalud after reports of violent clashes and Israeli rioters hurling stones toward Palestinians. Dozens of rioters had “barricaded themselves” inside a Palestinian house, the military said, leading Israeli forces to remove the attackers and confiscate their vehicles. It was not clear whether any Israelis were arrested.
The house’s owner, Luay Beyrouti, 29, said that around noon on Saturday, a handful of settlers had approached the structure, throwing stones. Mr. Beyrouti’s family does not live in the house at the moment; he had gone there along with several other Palestinians to renovate it.
Later, dozens more settlers arrived in cars, surrounding the house before breaking in and trapping him and the other Palestinians who had been working there, he said.
A separate attack unfolded about four miles away in the Palestinian town of Jalud. A group of masked Israeli settlers attacked and injured reporters with NBC News who were interviewing a Palestinian woman driven out of her home, the outlet said. Settlers in a car approached the group as they were walking down a hill, hitting them with sticks and throwing rocks, according to NBC, which said three of its staff and the woman were hurt.
Members of Israel’s right-wing, pro-settler government have frequently argued that concerns about settler violence are overblown, and officials have sometimes signaled their support for Israelis accused of attacks.
But on Saturday, Mr. Netanyahu said the attackers were not only “breaking the law” but also harming Israel’s reputation abroad, causing “immense harm to the law-abiding settler community” and damaging “Israel’s standing in the world.”
“I expect law enforcement authorities to arrest the rioters and bring them to justice as soon as possible,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, a largely ceremonial post, said the events were “reprehensible” and “cast a stain on Israel’s image.” He called on Israeli law enforcement “to root out this unacceptable phenomenon and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have risen sharply in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began three years ago. Israeli rights groups argue that few are prosecuted for the ***aults, and that extremists have largely acted with impunity. Yesh Din, a rights monitor, said just 3 percent of investigations tracked by the group between 2005 and 2025 led to full or partial convictions.
This month, two other families in Qusra were trapped by Israeli settlers for days in their homes, despite Israeli military promises to remove the rioters. Mike Huckabee, the U.S. amb***ador to Israel, condemned the attackers as “Israeli terrorists” and said he had asked the Israeli military and police to act.
When Mr. Beyrouti’s house was attacked on Saturday, he and other local Palestinians who were there said they repeatedly called the Israeli authorities, hoping for help.
When soldiers arrived, they fired tear gas, he said, forcing them to flee to the roof to try to avoid choking. The Israeli attackers ultimately retreated, but at least some remained in the area, said Mr. Beyrouti, who was wounded in his arm during the clashes.
An Israeli police spokesman did not respond to questions about whether any of the Israeli ***ailants had been arrested. But Mr. Beyrouti said that the soldiers instead briefly detained him and the other Palestinians with him.
“I said this was my house, and they didn’t listen,” Mr. Beyrouti said. “They told me I was forbidden to be there. I told them that the settlers attacked us. They told me to shut up.”
In a statement, the Israeli military confirmed handcuffing several Palestinians who it said had thrown stones during the episode, including at Israeli soldiers. The military said it had used “proportionate force” against one who resisted. The statement did not say whether the soldiers detained any of the Israeli attackers.
On Saturday evening, Mr. Beyrouti returned to the site with his brother Yazan Beyrouti to give testimony to Israeli police investigators who arrived on the scene, the two men said. Both said they believed that the attackers were unlikely to be prosecuted.
“At the end of the day, the judge and perpetrator belong to the same side,” said Yazan Beyrouti, 24. “And the army, when it comes, doesn’t protect us.”
