In the West Bank, Israeli settlers take over Palestinian's dream home

Palestinian Mohammad Salameh was building a home for his family in ​the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where his recently engaged son was meant to start married life. Instead, before construction was complete, a ‌group of Israeli settlers seized the property.

Video filmed earlier in the week and verified by Reuters showed at least six settlers moving around on the roof of the two-storey house, which sits below a nearby hill.

Salameh said appeals to the Israeli military and police brought no help. Now he fears his home, which like many others in the ​Palestinian territory is surrounded by Israeli settlements and smaller outposts, is lost forever.

Other houses in the area could suffer the same fate, ​he said.

"Only God knows, if there is law and order then they will leave," Salameh said. "If they succeeded with taking ⁠one, then the rest will follow."

Reuters was unable to reach the settlers for comment. One of them could be seen walking on the house's ​roof on Thursday.

The Israeli military said it received a report regarding the house earlier this week and that "soldiers arrived to the area and quickly acted to ​disperse the gathering".

It did not comment on the settlers' continued presence in the house.

The military said law enforcement regarding actions by Israeli settlers in the West Bank is the responsibility of Israel's police, which did not respond to a request for comment.

The seizure of Palestinian land by settlers is a ​longstanding feature of life in the West Bank, where about 500,000 Israelis live among roughly 3 million Palestinians.

Palestinians have for years reported damage to ​farmland, vandalism and attacks linked to settlement expansion.

A UN inquiry reported last month that Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian villages and agricultural land had surged since 2023, rising ‌by 130%.

Residents ⁠of Jalud, Salameh's village, say this week's incident marks another troubling escalation because the settlers seized a house that was still under construction.

"They have now moved down to within no more than 100 meters from the last house in Jalud, which is also a house under construction belonging to a resident," said Raed al-Haj Mohammad, head of the village council.


-Reuters