RAMALLAH, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- With a pale face and eyes heavy with sorrow, 60-year-old Mahmoud Tubasi stands every day on the roof of his father's house in Jalud village, northern West Bank, gazing at his two burned homes from afar.
The houses, once clad in Jerusalem stone, a natural white limestone widely used in Palestinian construction, are now blackened by fire -- scars that will never fade from his and his wife's hearts.
"My wife's condition is very bad. She has suffered a mental breakdown and has hallucinations every day," Tubasi said. After a long pause, he added that he himself had lately been having nightmares of settlers attacking him.
The nightmare began when he tried to return home a few days ago.
On Sept. 29, Tubasi and his family, escorted by the Israeli army, returned to their home south of Jalud after more than 70 days away. Before the soldiers left, settlers arrived -- and set their home on fire.
The army put Tubasi and his wife in a jeep and drove them to a spot 100 meters away.
Speaking of the fire, Tubasi stared at the ground, his voice low: "My wife was crying beside me. I felt something stuck in my chest. I jumped out of the car window to stop this madness, but the Israeli army took us away from the scene."
Tubasi's family had built their home brick by brick over three years, at a cost of about 500,000 new shekels (about 163,500 U.S. dollars).
Recalling their past life, a fleeting smile crossed his face. "The air was fresh, and we could see the mountains in Jordan and, on clear days, Jericho," he said. "Our family was once the envy of the village."
"But in July this year, settlers occupied my house. I squeezed into my father's two-story house with my wife and daughter, and my two sons were forced to move away -- one to Ramallah and the other to Kafr Yasif," Tubasi said, his eyes brimming with tears.
Tubasi later saw photos of his burned home: settlers had placed tires inside to start the fire, burning the house to the ground and leaving behind only a scarred shell.
In the West Bank, settler violence has intensified. UN data shows that in 2026 alone, about 3,800 Palestinians have been displaced by settler violence, house demolitions and evictions. More than 1,430 incidents involving Israeli settlers have been recorded this year, affecting about 260 Palestinian communities.
Tubasi lost not only his property but also about 26 dunams (about 2.6 hectares) of land -- his only source of income. "The harvest season is approaching, and the trees are full of olives, but no one dares to pick them."
"I planted about 350 olive trees. Settlers cut down more than half of them, chopped down the fig and apricot trees, and uprooted the grapevines. Even the metal fence and gate I installed in the orchard were dismantled. Nothing was left," he said.
Jalud village, located southwest of Nablus with an area of only 1,580 hectares, is almost surrounded by settlements and outposts. Tubasi's home faces a newly built settlement across a valley, at a straight-line distance of only about one kilometer.
Tubasi said Jalud had enjoyed relative calm despite nearby settlements until January, when an outpost known as Ras al-Ain appeared. A road linking the outpost to a nearby settlement runs past his home, and harassment intensified afterward.
Data from the Palestinian official body, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee, shows that Nablus Governorate recorded 900 settler attacks in the first half of 2026, the highest among West Bank governorates; in August alone, the governorate saw 137 attacks.
"This is not just about the house. They want to seize the whole land. They do not recognize us as the legal owners and believe the land belongs to them," Tubasi added. ■
