Homes reduced to ash and livelihoods lost amidst West Bank attacks
Ramallah (ANTARA) - With a pale face and eyes filled with sorrow, Mahmoud Tubasi (60) stands every day on the roof of his father’s house in the village of Jalud, northern West Bank, gazing from a distance at his two burnt homes.
Those houses, once clad in Jerusalem stone—a type of natural white limestone widely used in Palestinian construction—are now blackened by fire, a scar that will never fade from his and his wife’s hearts.
“My wife’s condition is very poor. She is suffering from mental distress and experiences hallucinations every day,” said Tubasi.
After a long silence, he added that he himself has recently been frequently experiencing nightmares about settlers attacking him.
These nightmares began when he attempted to return home several days ago.
On 29 September, Tubasi and his family, escorted by Israeli soldiers, returned to their home south of Jalud after more than 70 days of displacement. Before the soldiers departed, settlers arrived and set their house on fire.
The soldiers placed Tubasi and his wife inside a jeep and transported them to a location 100 metres away.
Speaking about the fire, Tubasi looked at the ground, his voice faint: “My wife was crying beside me. I felt something heavy in my chest. I jumped out of the car window to stop this madness, but the Israeli soldiers moved us away from the scene.”
The Tubasi family had built their home stone by stone over three years, at a cost of approximately 500,000 new shekels (1 shekel = Rp5,877).
Recalling their past life, a fleeting smile crossed his face. “The air was fresh then, and we could see the mountains of Jordan and, on clear days, Jericho,” he said. “Our family used to be the talk of the village, making others envious.”
“However, in July this year, settlers occupied my house. I was forced to crowd into my father’s two-storey house with my wife and daughter, while my two sons were forced to move, one to Ramallah and the other to Kafr Yasif,” Tubasi said with tearful eyes.
Tubasi then looked at photos of his burnt home. Settlers had placed tyres inside the house to trigger the fire, burning the structure to the ground, leaving only the charred skeleton of the building.
In the West Bank, settler violence is increasing. United Nations (UN) data shows that in 2026 alone, approximately 3,800 Palestinians were forced to displace due to settler violence, house demolitions, and evictions. More than 1,430 incidents involving Israeli settlers have been recorded this year, impacting around 260 Palestinian communities.
Tubasi has not only lost his property but also about 26 dunams (approximately 2.6 hectares) of land, his sole source of income. “The harvest season is approaching, and the trees are full of olives, but no one dares to pick them.”
“I planted about 350 olive trees. The settlers have cut down more than half of them, along with fig and apricot trees, and uprooted grapevines. Even the iron fences and gates I installed in the orchard were dismantled. Nothing remains,” he revealed.
The village of Jalud, located southwest of Nablus and covering only 1,580 hectares, is almost entirely surrounded by settlements and outposts.
Tubasi stated that Jalud enjoyed relative tranquillity despite the surrounding settlements until January, when an outpost known as Ras al-Ain appeared. A road connecting the outpost to the nearest settlement passes by his house, and disruptions intensified after that.
Data from the official Palestinian body, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee, shows that the Nablus Governorate recorded 900 settler attacks in the first half (H1) of 2026, the highest among the governorates in the West Bank. In August alone, the governorate recorded 137 attacks.
“It is not just about the house. They want to seize all the land. They do not recognise us as the rightful owners and believe that the land belongs to them,” Tubasi added.