‘Children are inside!’: Palestinian homes, vehicles set on fire in apparent settler attack
Medics: 4 hurt from smoke inhalation; security forces arrive in Susya after fires put out, make no arrests; elsewhere, settlers start rebuilding dismantled illegal outpost Kol Mevaser
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleHomes and vehicles in the Palestinian village of Susya, in the southern West Bank, were set ablaze on Tuesday night in an attack apparently carried out by extremist Israeli settlers.
Footage published by Palestinian media showed several fires burning in the village, and reports indicated that at least four locations had been targeted, including the site of a residential tent and the entrance to a family home with the family inside.
Two vehicles were also set on fire, and another had its windows smashed, left-wing activists said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society later said four residents of the village were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene of the attack.
Israeli security forces were eventually dispatched to the scene, although the flames had died down by that point, and no arrests were made.
Security camera footage from the village, published by Palestinian media and timestamped to around 8:15 p.m. showed over a dozen masked and hooded assailants setting fire to a truck and another vehicle near a pair of structures. Several of the assailants appeared to be carrying sticks.
At one point, one of the people in the video could be seen picking up an object from the ground and throwing it at the security camera. Strings of tzitzit, a Jewish ritual undergarment, were visible under the shirt of another assailant standing beside him.
CCTV footage shows a large group of Israeli settlers setting Palestinian homes and vehicles on fire in an attempt to burn families alive in the village of Susya in the West Bank, then trying to destroy the security camera to erase the evidence. pic.twitter.com/156MTNhExz
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) February 25, 2026
In another video, a Palestinian could be heard yelling in Arabic to bring water to “the house” before telling someone, this time in Hebrew, that “children are inside!”
The Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police eventually dispatched forces to the village, located in the South Hebron Hills, but said in a subsequent statement that when the forces arrived, the flames had been extinguished, and that there were no reports of injuries.
They said forces were searching the area for suspects and that the Shin Bet and police were investigating the incident.
“Security forces harshly condemn incidents like this, and will continue to act to preserve law and order in the area,” they said in a joint statement.
As of Wednesday morning, however, no arrests had been reported.
Palestinian media also reported outbreaks of violence overnight in several villages in the Masafer Yatta area, close to Susya. According to WAFA, residents of Khirbet Qawawis and Khirbet al-Halawa reported that their livestock had been released by settlers, and similar scenes were reported in al-Mirkaz and Khirbet at Tabban.
Settlers return to demolished outpost
On the other side of the West Bank, in its northern region, settlers were filmed on Tuesday rebuilding an illegal outpost in Area B, which is supposed to be under the administrative control of the Palestinian Authority.
The outpost, named Kol Mevaser, has been dismantled by Israeli authorities several times in the past, due to it being deemed a security risk.
It is one of the rare examples of illegal settler construction that Israeli authorities have sought to thwart, as the majority of focus has been on wildcat Palestinian building.
However, on Tuesday, settlers once again returned to the hilltop near the Palestinian village of Mukhmas, which, like many Palestinian villages, has been subject to repeated attacks by Israeli extremists.
Heavy construction equipment was filmed being used by the settlers in an indication that the IDF appeared to be, at the very least, turning a blind eye to the illegal construction.
מתנחבלים בונים מחדש את קן הטרור ״קול מבשר״ בשטח B בין חאלת א-סידרה למיחמאס תוך שימוש בכלי עבודה כבדים.
אתמול קבוצת מתנחבלים דיווחו שכוחות הכיבוש פינו אותם מהשטח הצבאי הסגור בפעם העשירית מאז אוקטובר.
כרגיל, הכוחות לא ביצעו מעצרים וכעת המתנחבלים בונים מחדש לקראת המתקפות הבאות pic.twitter.com/zfsvFbDuec
— Herd of Justice (@JustHerds) February 24, 2026
Mukhmas was the target of deadly violence last week, when armed settlers shot and killed 19-year-old Palestinian-American Nasrallah Abu Siam and wounded four other men.
Abu Siam was the first person killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank in 2026, and the 37th since the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, according to WAFA.
Settler attacks have spiked since the Hamas onslaught. The attacks, which occur on a near-daily basis, largely go unchecked. Prosecutions of Jewish extremists are rare, and convictions are even rarer. Critics have accused the government, described as the most hardline in Israel’s history, of shrugging off the attacks.
Data published by the IDF and Shin Bet security agency last month showed a 27 percent rise in settler attacks in 2025 compared to the previous year.
In addition to the overall rise in settler attacks, in 2025 there was also an increase in the number of severe incidents, including shootings, arson, and other violent crimes: 128 in the past year, compared with 83 in 2024 and 54 in 2023, according to the data.
The Times of Israel Community.