American man flies to West Bank to save home from Israeli settlers

Palestinian-American Loui Ridi said he could only watch via security cameras from his home in Ohio as Israeli settlers laid siege to his house in the village of Qusra, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, for over a week.Settlers have long illegally seized Palestinian homes in the West Bank, but the attacks have stepped up in recent years amid vows by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to establish new settler outposts and legalize more existing ones.After a week watching the siege play out from Toledo, and with settlers encircling two other houses in the area, Ridi, 46, told the Reuters news agency that he boarded a flight to Tel Aviv in an attempt to return to the village where he grew up, and to reclaim his home.U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers behind the unrest as "terrorists" last week in a stinging rebuke. U.S.-Palestinian dual citizen Loui Abu Ridi, whose home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Qusra is besieged by Israeli settlers, arrives to greet his mother Aisha at her home in the same village, south of Nablus on August 17, 2026. JAAFAR ASHTIYEH /AFP via Getty Images Israeli troops have been deployed to the area ostensibly to keep t...