Palestinians besieged in West Bank village of Qusra fear Israeli settlers will seize their homes

QUSRA, West Bank (AP) — From inside his home in the West Bank town of Qusra, Qusai Abu Rida watched on Friday as Israeli settlers moved from where they had erected a tent in front of his house to the valley below, rather than returning to the nearby outpost where they live.

WATCH: 'Act of terror': U.S. condemns Israeli settler siege of Palestinian homes in West Bank

Even as the Israeli army took positions around him and the homes of two other Palestinian families that settlers had blockaded for most of this week, the settlers remained close enough that Abu Rida feared they would again return after the army left and try to take over the home owned by his Palestinian American brother in Ohio.

The standoff in Qusra between Palestinian families and Israeli settlers who apparently want to push them out entered a new stage Friday as activists supporting the Palestinians marched toward the besieged homes to replenish their dwindling food and water supply. But Abu Rida said he was growing tired of the pattern, with Israeli forces removing the settlers, only for them to return and reestablish their positions after the troops withdrew.

"It's like a kids' game, like cat and mouse," Ziv Stahl, the executive director of the Israeli rights group Yesh Din, said. "It's clearly not a matter of capability but a matter of will."

The siege of the homes is the latest episode in a wave of settler violence convulsing the occupied West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and which would make up the main part of a future Palestinian state. Israel's military said the village — roughly 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Palestinian city of Nablus — was a closed military zone.

More than 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlements to be illegal and obstacles to peace.

Both Israel's military and Israel's police referred questions about the situation in Qusra to the other.

The West Bank has become more dangerous for Palestinians as Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has approved more than 100 new settlements. Extremist settlers routinely enter Palestinian towns, clashing with villagers, burning homes, mosques and cars.

Netanyahu is courting blocs of ultranationalist voters ahead of what's expected to be a difficult reelection campaign in October. He and members of his cabinet have largely dismissed concerns about settler violence as overblown and attributed it to fringe groups of a few hundred youths. Yet rights groups and Palestinians say the government's policies have made it more difficult to restrain settlers, who are rarely punished for attacks.

The standoff in Qusra began on Sunday when dozens of settlers arrived and blocked the doors to the three houses, preventing occupants from leaving, according to the families inside.

Israeli troops intervened multiple times and arrived in large numbers Thursday.

Abu Rida and his teenage son were temporarily moved by the army on Thursday but allowed to return hours later.