Settlers seize Palestinian homes in Jericho and force dozens to flee
Israeli settlers have forced dozens of Palestinians from their homes in Jericho after seizing eight properties in the West Bank city.
Accounts of the raid describe settlers firing live ammunition, beating residents and throwing stones as families were driven out. The seizures add to a pattern of settler expansion into Palestinian neighbourhoods under the protection of Israeli security forces.
Jericho sits deep in the Jordan Valley and has long been a focus of pressure on Palestinian communities. Local residents say the latest takeover leaves households without shelter and deepens fear that further properties will be targeted. Rights groups and Palestinian officials regularly warn that such seizures, often followed by outposts or permanent settler presence, entrench displacement far from the main headlines of the conflict.
The Jericho incidents come amid wider unrest across the West Bank, including restrictions at holy sites in Hebron and ongoing demolitions elsewhere. Families displaced in Jericho now face the immediate task of finding shelter while seeking legal and political recourse that rarely reverses settler takeovers once they are established.