Israeli settlers attack West Bank village, blocking family's return home

By Ali Sawafta and Lina Obeid

JALUD, West Bank, Sept 29 (Reuters) - More than 100 Israeli settlers have attacked a village in the occupied West Bank, preventing a Palestinian family from returning home and clashing with troops, witnesses said.

Two houses belonging to the Tubasi family in Jalud village were seized by settlers weeks ago, amid a surge of settler violence and land seizures that have drawn international condemnation.

The family had been staying elsewhere in the village, north of the city of Ramallah in the Palestinian territory, until Israel's military agreed to escort them back late on Monday night and protect them from the settlers.

Around ten minutes after they reached the homes, a group of over 100 settlers descended, witnesses said. The settlers set the homes on fire, blocked access roads, and hurled rocks toward Israeli officers, three of whom were injured, the Israeli military said in a statement.

"Due to the violence, the mission to return the family to their homes was not completed," the military said. Troops had the Palestinians go up to the roof when the settlers broke in but then evacuated them as the clashes intensified, witnesses said.

The incident highlights the Israeli military's failure to rein in settlers emboldened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government, which has overseen an expansion of settlements and settler outposts in the West Bank.

NETANYAHU CONDEMNS VIOLENCE

In a statement, Netanyahu said he strongly condemns the violence and called on law enforcement to prosecute them. Israeli and Palestinian rights groups say settler perpetrators are rarely punished for violence.

Wael Tubasi, who owns one of the two homes, told Reuters on Tuesday that the homes "were damaged beyond description".

"They damaged everything — the doors, the tiles were removed, the stairs were removed. They smashed the bathrooms, doors and windows. They left nothing, everything was broken," he said.

Reuters journalists reached the homes on Tuesday afternoon. Inside, the walls were black, stained with tar and residue from tyres the settlers had brought in and set ablaze.

Around half a dozen Israeli soldiers were patrolling the area. The Tubasi family was not present.

The military said its forces had arrested two settlers and launched an investigation.

Elsewhere in the West Bank on Tuesday, settlers set fire to cars in the village of Al Mughayyir and spraypainted the word "revenge" on the outside of an apartment building.

Moussa Mohammed Hamdan, a village resident, said of the settlers: "Wherever they see cars, livestock or olive trees, they destroy them — anything that can hurt us. But God willing, we will remain patient."

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta, Mohammad Torokman, Ammar Awad and Lina Obeid; Editing by Rami Ayyub and Andrew Cawthorne)