‘Thou shalt not steal’: US envoy warns settlers against seizing Palestinian property

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday warned extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank not to steal property owned by Palestinian Americans, adding that those found to have taken part in a siege of homes in the West Bank village of Qusra, including one belonging to a US citizen, could be punished with sanctions.

His message came as a group of Western nations condemned Israeli plans to build in E1, an area of the central West Bank long under contention. The countries warned construction companies that bidding for tenders in the project would be a violation of international law.

Huckabee’s statement is his latest condemnation of settler extremism in recent days, following the Qusra siege. Asked what message US President Donald Trump’s administration has for settlers considering seizing homes or land in the West Bank owned by Palestinian Americans, including one belonging to US citizen Loui Abu Ridi, Huckabee referred to Jewish and Christian scripture.

“I think the message is bigger than just even the Trump administration. It’s a message of basic civility and civilized behavior,” Huckabee said in Jerusalem. “You don’t take something that doesn’t belong to you.”

Citing the Ten Commandments, Huckabee said “Thou shalt not steal” and that people should neither take nor “covet” what belongs to others.

“If someone owns the land and they own their house, then having someone come and take it over and scare the family away from it, that’s a violation, not just of man’s law. That’s a violation of God’s law,” said Huckabee.

Last week, Huckabee had denounced the perpetrators of the Qusra siege as “Israeli terrorists.”

The US ambassador is a longtime supporter of Israel’s settlements, and has said he believes violent settlers are a minority who do not represent the wider settlement community. Those settlers, he said, “just want to raise their families in Judea and Samaria peacefully and with a level of security,” using the biblical name for the territory.

The ambassador said the US is “appalled” by what happened in Qusra. The Palestinian families targeted by Israeli settlers are victims of “inexcusable and repugnant” criminal activity, and those settlers found to have taken part should face significant consequences in Israel, he said.

Huckabee also said that anyone found to be involved could also face US sanctions, such as a ban on entering the US, although he added he is not aware that any such measures are under consideration. The Trump administration has previously opposed such measures, revoking sanctions on violent settlers that were enacted under former president Joe Biden.

Abu Ridi arrived in Qusra late on Monday after traveling from the US, fearing he could lose the property to the settlers.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Thursday that a 70-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl were wounded the night before by shrapnel from IDF gunfire in Qusra.

Later, the Red Crescent said three people were injured after being beaten by IDF troops, according to the report, during a military operation in Nablus’s Rafidia neighborhood.

Responding to a query from The Times of Israel, the IDF, which has maintained a presence in the village since the beginning of the settler siege, denied the claim.

The IDF said that “during a patrol by IDF troops in the village, they encountered several Palestinians who hurled stones at them. The troops responded by firing into the air only, in order to drive away the stone-throwers.”

“The two females were not wounded by gunfire or shrapnel, and according to the report received by the IDF, they were apparently evacuated after suffering from anxiety,” the army added.

Israeli authorities have not announced any arrests or charges against settlers allegedly involved in besieging the Palestinian homes, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly commented on the incident. A senior settler leader has, however, condemned the actions of the settlers.

Jewish settlers have circled three Palestinian homes in the village for more than a week, amid a months-long surge in settler violence, with near-daily attacks on Palestinians and their property in which arrests and prosecutions remain rare.

Settler charged with assaulting Palestinian shepherd after running state-provided ATV over his sheep

An exception to that trend, however, came Thursday as the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office charged a settler with assaulting a Palestinian shepherd after driving a state-provided ATV over the man’s sheep in the area of Khirbet al-Tawil, near Nablus, on May 17.

The settler, 21-year-old Yedidia Kaufman, was also charged with breaking into a private compound in the nearby town of Qabalan with other stick-wielding individuals to intimidate residents on May 2, and with assaulting left-wing activists who tried to prevent him and other individuals from breaking into the grounds of a home on May 3.

He was indicted at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on multiple counts, including trespassing, animal cruelty, and racially motivated assault.

Kaufman is a resident of the large Haredi settlement of Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem, but allegedly committed the crimes while living and working on the state-backed Jackson Farm, near Tawil, over April and May.

Looking the Occupation in the Eyes, a left-wing Israeli group that volunteers with Palestinians in the area, has long accused settlers from the farm of harassing surrounding Palestinian communities.

So-called protective presence activists have also long said ATVs provided by the state enable settlers to intimidate Palestinians and encroach on the shepherding communities’ grazing areas.

According to the indictment, the Polaris ATV with which Kaufman ran over the sheep near Tawil belonged to the owner of the settler farm, Noam Jackson, who received it from the Settlements Ministry, which has provided such vehicles to outposts across the West Bank.

Kaufman, who never received a driver’s license, allegedly drove the vehicle with two other unidentified individuals in tow and stayed in place on top of the sheep despite the Palestinian shepherd’s protests.

The ramming killed a pregnant sheep and its embryo, and seriously wounded another pregnant sheep, which had a miscarriage, the indictment said.

Israeli security establishment figures reported by Kan showed 660 serious incidents of Jewish “nationalistic crime” in the West Bank during the first six months of 2026, up from 405 during the same period last year — a 63% increase.

Six Palestinians were killed and 140 wounded in settler violence during the first half of the year, compared with no deaths and 82 injuries during the same period in 2025. Attacks targeting Israeli security forces also rose by 50%, with 45 incidents recorded. Roughly another 100 incidents were recorded in July, according to the Kan figures.

Seven countries condemn Israel’s E1 West Bank settlement plan

In another instance of international backlash to Israeli West Bank actions, France, Germany, Britain, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and Italy on Thursday condemned plans by Israel to open up construction tenders for a residential property project in the E1 area in the central West Bank.

The countries warned businesses against bidding for the construction tenders, saying they were at risk of “involving themselves in serious breaches of international law,” according to a joint statement by the leaders of those countries.

“The decision by the Israeli government to publish bid offers for construction projects within the framework of the E1 settlers’ project is unacceptable,” the statement read.

The tender published by the Construction and Housing Ministry gives contractors until October 19 to bid on the project — a week before the October 27 parliamentary election.

The housing units in the tender are some of the roughly 3,400 E1 housing units that were greenlit last August. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich lauded the E1 expansion plan at the time, saying it “practically erases the two-state delusion” by splitting up key territory that would be slated for a Palestinian state.

Such E1 expansion plans have sparked controversy for decades because the land connects the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim areas, and its development would seemingly scuttle the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian presence between the population centers of Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah — long considered by the international community to be the basis for a Palestinian state.

The project was frozen for long years amid fierce opposition from the international community, including past US administrations.

AFP and Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.