By Ali Sawafta
JALUD, West Bank, July 3 (Reuters) – 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 was checking Reuters’ request for comment but had not responded by Friday. The Israeli police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SETTLEMENTS, SETTLER ATTACKS WIDEN UNDER NETANYAHU GOVERNMENT
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 U.N. 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.
Jalud has faced five major settler attacks, he said, including the burning of homes, damage to vehicles and the uprooting of trees.
Most countries and the United Nations regard Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal under international law, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibition on transferring a civilian population into occupied territory.
Israel rejects that position, saying the West Bank is disputed territory where there has been a Jewish presence for thousands of years. Palestinians consider the West Bank, together with Gaza and East Jerusalem, as part of a Palestinian state.
Settlement building and settler violence have long been among the biggest obstacles to peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians. Even Israel’s staunchest allies, including the United States, have condemned settler actions.
Nevertheless, settlement expansion has accelerated under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which relies on hardline pro-settlement parties to maintain its parliamentary majority.
For Salameh, the dispute is painfully personal. Construction on the house stalled after the Gaza war erupted in 2023, when his son could not find work and the family’s finances came under strain.
“The neighbour close by has built a two-story house, which they will probably take too, if we lose this house (his) they will lose theirs,” he said.
(Writing by Yasmine Ghania; Editing by Michael Georgy and Ros Russell)
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