LONDON: The Israeli military has reversed an earlier order to evacuate Palestinians from 15 homes in the West Bank village of Qusra, saying residents could remain while troops conduct operations near a recently established settler outpost, according to Israeli media.
The military said forces had been operating in Qusra since Thursday morning “to protect the residents and maintain security in the area,” The Times of Israel reported.
Village residents said military officials told them the operation was expected to last three days.
The military also said troops would not operate inside the home of a Palestinian family that had been surrounded for several days after settlers established an outpost at the village entrance.
Although the outpost has since been dismantled, settlers remain in the area, the military said.
Earlier Thursday, the Israeli military said security forces demolished two unauthorized settler outposts near Qusra and the neighboring village of Jalud, Times of Israel reporter Emanuel Fabian said in a post on X.
Both outposts were established on the outskirts of the villages in Area B of the West Bank.
The military said security forces dismantled structures, confiscated equipment and detained one Israeli suspect.
The military confirms that overnight security forces demolished two illegal settler outposts in the West Bank villages of Qusra and Jalud.
Both outposts were established on the outskirts of the villages, in Area B of the West Bank. The IDF says security forces dismantled…
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 13, 2026
But an eyewitness account from a CNN correspondent in Qusra offered a more complicated picture of the operation. Israeli security forces arrived to dismantle the outpost and remove settlers, but additional settlers then arrived and clashes broke out.
Israeli forces later withdrew while the settlers remained, the correspondent reported, adding that Israeli soldiers had earlier ordered Palestinian families to leave their homes, saying the evacuation was necessary for troops to operate against settlers in the area.
The families moved into one of three homes but did not leave the hilltop, the correspondent said.
Israeli soldiers showed up to these homes this morning and ordered Palestinians to evacuate. The stated reason: so they can operate against the settlers in the area.
Ultimately, the families moved into 1 of the 3 homes but are not leaving the hilltop.
Monitoring - https://t.co/rld4y4lW7Q— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) August 13, 2026
The events come amid a sharp rise in violence involving Israeli settlers and security forces in the West Bank in recent weeks, according to rights groups and media reports. But violence has been escalating in the territory since October 2023, when Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following a Hamas-led attack.
Over the past two and a half years, settlers have established at least 21 outposts in Area B, according to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group.
“While officials in the Israeli military and government have repeatedly claimed that these outposts are dismantled, in practice they continue to multiply, become more firmly established, and expand,” Peace Now said in a statement last month.
“Some are already home to families, others now include synagogues, and in at least one case a coffee cart has been installed to serve the many visitors arriving at the site,” the group said.
Peace Now’s Settlement Watch team documented seven new settlement outposts in Area B by the end of 2024 — the first such outposts in the area since the Oslo Accords were signed, the group said. Since then, those outposts have expanded and additional ones have been established.
At least five of the new outposts are in the Agreed Upon Reserve, east and south of Bethlehem, which Peace Now said has become a focal point of government and settler efforts to displace Palestinians. Other outposts have been established near Ramallah, in the South Hebron Hills, near Nablus and east of Bethlehem and Hebron.
Area B comprises about 22 percent of the West Bank and is under Palestinian administrative control and Israeli security control. It is home to an estimated 1.1 million to 1.3 million Palestinians, or about 41 percent of Palestinians living in Areas A and B combined, according to the Istanbul-based Vision Center for Political Development.
