Settlers Burn Toubasi Family Homes in Jalud Hours After Court-Ordered Return

The Toubasi family had been back in their home in Jalud for only a few hours when the settlers arrived.

An Israeli court had ordered the army to secure the family's return to the village south of Nablus after they were driven out in July by repeated settler attacks aimed at seizing the property. Shortly after midnight on Monday, around 100 settlers raided Jalud and targeted the Toubasi houses, according to Middle East Eye's reporting. They set fire to two of the homes.

Mahmoud Toubasi, who owns one of the houses, said the family was shocked at the scale of the destruction when they returned. The fire gutted the structure, destroyed its contents, and left it uninhabitable, he said.

Local media reports cited by Middle East Eye said Israeli forces eventually arrived but did not act to stop the burning. Instead, the reports said, soldiers protected the settlers and forced the Toubasi family to evacuate again, this time at gunpoint. That claim comes from local media accounts rather than a named witness or official statement.

The army did clash separately with some of the settlers while trying to disperse the crowd. Army officials said rioters blocked roads, burned tyres, and threw stones at troops, injuring three soldiers.

"Violence by settlers is the direct outcome of Israeli policies that support, enable and protect their actions," said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

President Isaac Herzog called the clashes between settlers and the army a "moral stain" on the nation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a "small number of rioters" did not represent the settler community. Neither statement referred to the attacks on Palestinians.

The same night, settlers set fire to a house and several vehicles in al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, according to Middle East Eye. Large numbers of settlers also entered Beitunia and the Jaryout Road area west of Ramallah under what local sources described as the protection of Israeli forces, attacking passing cars and throwing stones.

In East Jerusalem, dozens of settlers attacked two Palestinian men near Damascus Gate late Monday. A video posted online and cited by Middle East Eye shows youths pushing the men to the ground and kicking them. The attack came as Israelis crowded the Old City's Muslim Quarter for Sukkot, during which dozens of Palestinian shops were ordered closed and residents told to stay indoors.

OCHA recorded more than 1,600 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage between January 1 and September 14 this year, an average of 6.7 a day. The agency's yearly tallies show 1,836 attacks in 2025, up from 1,500 in 2024, 1,291 in 2023, and 853 in 2022.