More than 100 Israeli settlers attacked the West Bank village of Jalud late on Monday night, setting fire to two homes belonging to the Tubasi family just minutes after the family returned under Israeli military escort, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The settlers blocked access roads and hurled rocks at Israeli officers, three of whom were injured, the Israeli military said in a statement. The military escort mission was abandoned.

The attack comes amid a surge of settler violence and land seizures in the occupied West Bank that has drawn international condemnation, Reuters reported.

A court-ordered return, blocked by fire

The two houses had been seized by settlers weeks ago, according to witnesses cited by Reuters. The Tubasi family had been staying elsewhere in the village until Israel's military agreed to escort them back late on Monday night and protect them from the settlers.

Around ten minutes after the family reached the homes, a group of more than 100 settlers descended, witnesses said. The settlers set the homes on fire, blocked access roads, and threw rocks toward Israeli officers, three of whom were injured, the military said.

"Due to the violence, the mission to return the family to their homes was not completed," the military said. Troops had the Palestinians go up to the roof when the settlers broke in but then evacuated them as the clashes intensified, witnesses said.

Condemnation, arrests, and the damage left behind

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that he strongly condemns the violence and called on law enforcement to prosecute those responsible, Reuters reported. Israeli and Palestinian rights groups say settler perpetrators are rarely punished for violence.

The military said its forces had arrested two settlers and launched an investigation.

Wael Tubasi, who owns one of the two homes, told Reuters on Tuesday that the homes "were damaged beyond description." Reuters journalists who reached the homes on Tuesday afternoon reported walls blackened and stained with tar and residue from tyres the settlers had brought in and set ablaze. Around half a dozen Israeli soldiers were patrolling the area; the Tubasi family was not present.

Separately, elsewhere in the West Bank on Tuesday, settlers set fire to cars in the village of Al Mughayyir and spray-painted the word "revenge" on the outside of an apartment building, Reuters reported. A village resident, Moussa Mohammed Hamdan, said of the settlers: "Wherever they see cars, livestock or olive trees, they destroy them — anything that can hurt us."

"Due to the violence, the mission to return the family to their homes was not completed" — Israeli military statement, via Reuters

What to watch

The Jalud attack is notable for the scale of the confrontation: a triple-digit group of settlers overwhelming an active Israeli military escort mission and injuring officers in the process. With Netanyahu publicly condemning the violence and two arrests made, the question is whether prosecutions follow — or whether, as rights groups have long documented, the cases end without punishment, further entrenching the cycle of violence in the West Bank.