(Photo credit: AFP)The Cradle
AUG 16, 2026
UN representatives and activists have been trying to get aid to the besieged Abu Rida and Hassan families for over a week.
Palestinian families in the town of Qusra in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus have remained trapped in their homes for the eighth consecutive day, with UN and Palestinian officials visiting the besieged locals on 16 August.
“UN representatives arrived at homes in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, that had been blocked by settlers over the past week, bringing residents food and water,” sources told Times of Israel on Sunday.
“UN representatives brought a water tanker with them, but security forces did not allow it to remain at the site, which remains a closed military zone.”
Activists have attempted to aid the besieged Palestinians repeatedly in over the past few days.
Palestinian Authority (PA) representatives also visited Qusra, according to a statement released on 16 August by PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.
“As Qusra enters a second week under a settler-imposed siege, a ministerial delegation, under PM Mustafa’s directives, visited the town to stand with its citizens and assess urgent needs in healthcare, water, electricity, infrastructure and renewable energy,” the statement said.
The settlers were supposed to have been evacuated by occupation forces several days ago from one of the illegal outposts in the area.
However, settlers remain near Qusra and were seen driving ATV vehicles on the town’s outskirts. The Abu Rida and Hassan families are still trapped.
Occupation forces claim they are keeping settlers away from the town, but the residents assert that they remain unable to move.
Troops are now continuing the siege, a member of the Hassan family told Times of Israel.
Yusuf Hassan said “soldiers have prohibited him from leaving his home due to a closed military zone order issued for the area, essentially leaving the siege in place.
He added that he “fears that as soon as [Israeli] troops leave the area, the settlers will return and once again block the home.”
At the same time, Times of Israel reported that it remains “unclear” to “what extent [the settlers] have truly kept away.”
Over the past eight days, settlers have terrorized the residents of Qusra while besieging the two families.
The town’s electricity and water supplies were targeted and cut off by the settlers. The extremists have been attempting to set up new illegal outposts in the area for four months.
Israel has been illegally occupying the West Bank and expanding settlements for decades, but has drastically escalated its longstanding policy of violence and ethnic cleansing under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current government.
It is now rapidly moving forward with a de facto annexation of the territory.
These attacks, which have surged 63 percent in the first half of 2026, escalated even further after a resistance operation left two settlers dead in Tel, southwest of Nablus, last month.
The army-backed settler siege of Qusra is part of the massive escalation of violence and terror launched by the colonists in response to the Tel resistance operation.
Since the start of 2025, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly uprooted from West Bank refugee camps by the Israeli military.
Hundreds of homes have been demolished, and illegal settlements are expanding under Israeli government legislation.
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