SAFA - Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has warned that the forced displacement of Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank is accelerating, as extremist settlers seek to drive two Palestinian families from their homes in Qusra, south of Nablus, and seize their properties.

According to B’Tselem, settlers established illegal outposts in the courtyards of the two Palestinian homes in recent days and have continued to surround and isolate the families. The organization said the objective appears clear: to make life so unbearable that the families are forced to abandon their homes, allowing the settlers to take control of the land.

B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak said the events in Qusra cannot be dismissed as an isolated incident.

“Israeli ethnic cleansing in the West Bank is accelerating and expanding in full view of everyone,” Novak said.

Palestinian families left under siege

The organization said Israeli occupation forces have failed to remove the settlers or take meaningful steps to protect the Palestinian families. On Wednesday, dozens of settlers reportedly blocked the road leading to the homes, further tightening the siege and facilitating the establishment of the new outpost.

For the families inside, the encirclement represents more than an isolated act of settler harassment. It is part of a wider pattern in which Palestinian communities face violence, intimidation, land seizures, and displacement while illegal settlement outposts continue to expand across the occupied West Bank.

B’Tselem said footage recorded on Sunday showed settlers and Israeli occupation soldiers praying together at the newly established outpost beside the Palestinian homes.

The footage has further fueled concerns over the relationship between settler activity and the Israeli military presence in the West Bank, where Palestinians routinely face restrictions on movement and increasing pressure to leave their homes and agricultural lands.

A widening campaign of displacement

Qusra is among numerous Palestinian communities confronting escalating settler attacks and attempts to take control of privately owned Palestinian land. In many cases, the establishment of an outpost can transform a previously isolated act of settler takeover into a permanent mechanism for restricting Palestinian access to their property.

B’Tselem’s warning comes amid growing international concern over the expansion of Israeli settlements and settler violence in the occupied West Bank. The organization’s description of the developments as ethnic cleansing underscores the scale and systematic nature of an ongoing campaign to empty parts of the territory of their indigenous population.

For the families in Qusra, the immediate struggle is to remain in the homes where they have lived while facing a growing presence of armed settlers and Israeli forces.

As illegal outposts continue to spread, Palestinian communities fear that displacement will not end with individual families. Instead, they warn that the gradual seizure of land and forced removal of residents could permanently reshape the West Bank, pushing Palestinians from their homes while expanding Israeli control over territory captured in 1967.