Liam Payne's father arrives in Buenos Aires days after the pop star's fatal hotel plunge

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The father of former One Direction star Liam Payne arrived in Buenos Aires on Friday to arrange for the return of his son's body to England two days after the famous boy band singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony.

After landing at the Buenos Aires International Airport in the early morning hours, Geoff Payne was photographed emerging in a blue suit from a downtown hotel accompanied by British consular officials. He was hustled by security officers into a sleek van with black-tinted windows.

Payne visited the Buenos Aires morgue to identify his son's body before heading to the local prosecutor's office, which is investigating the case as a matter of protocol, to organize the repatriation of his son's remains, Argentine authorities said. He later stopped at the Casa Sur Hotel where Payne died to collect his son's belongings, where throngs of distraught Argentines had gathered for the third straight day to pay their respects.

A chain of young fans with linked arms maintained effective crowd control as Payne squeezed past the flowers, photos and hand-written cards piled outside the hotel in tribute to his son. He paused at the makeshift memorial, leaning down to pick up a photo of Liam before thanking everyone and disappearing into the hotel.

“I felt sick to my stomach because I couldn’t say goodbye to him,” said Mara Dorf, one of the fans at the scene.

It's the first time that any of Payne's family members have been seen publicly since the star's sudden death, which set off a global outpouring of grief and emotion from major pop industry figures and diehard One Direction fans. The shock hit particularly hard at home, with his family saying in a statement hours after his death that they “are heartbroken.”

“Liam will forever live in our hearts and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul,” it said. “We are supporting each other the best we can as a family and ask for privacy and space at this awful time.”

In media interviews over the years, Payne had expressed gratitude and affection for his auto mechanic father and nurse mother, describing them as hard-working and supportive. Both parents made cameos in “One Direction: This Is Us,” the 2013 concert documentary about the popular boy band.

“When I see him on stage I absolutely burst with pride, but we do miss him so much,” Payne's mother, Karen, said at one point in the film.

The 31-year-old singer's final hours at the Casa Sur Hotel in Palermo, a trendy neighborhood of Buenos Aires, remain murky as Argentine prosecutors say he appeared to have excessively consumed drugs and alcohol. The prosecution cited investigators who found Payne's hotel room a mess with what appeared to be narcotics and alcohol strewn about broken objects and furniture.

It remains unclear whether Payne intentionally jumped or accidentally fell from the third floor. The autopsy performed a few hours after his death showed he died from the plunge, which caused “multiple trauma” and “internal and external bleeding” in the skull, chest and abdomen and limbs. The results of toxicology reports are pending.

Investigators said that there were no signs of anyone else being involved in his death, citing a lack of defensive wounds on Payne's body that also indicates he did not try to protect himself from the fall. The prosecutor's report said Payne could have fallen into a state of semi-consciousness or unconsciousness.

In the media frenzy over the case, the gossip and celebrity news site TMZ had drawn particular backlash for publishing a cropped image that purported to show Payne’s body, with his identifying tattoos, sprawled on a wooden deck after his fall.

The site later pulled the image under a torrent of criticism. But the fallout continued on Friday when the Girls Aloud singer Cheryl — Payne's former girlfriend and the mother of his son, Bear — posted a powerful statement on Instagram in implicit response.

“What is troubling my spirit most is that one day Bear will have access to the abhorrent reports and media exploitation we have seen in the past two days,” she wrote. “Please give Liam the little dignity he has left in the wake of his death to rest in some peace at last.”

Associated Press journalist Christian Kovadloff in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.

Fans of former One Direction singer Liam Payne grieve outside Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Geoff Payne, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, visits a memorial outside the Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)

Geoff Payne, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, touches a gel bracelet hanging on a picture of his son while visiting a memorial outside the Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Geoff Payne, left, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, visits a memorial outside the Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)

Geoff Payne, right, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, visits a memorial outside the Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)

Geoff Payne, center, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, is escorted by police officers as he arrives to the Casa Sur Hotel where his son fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Fans of former One Direction singer Liam Payne stand outside the hotel where he was found dead after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Police restrain fans gathering outside the hotel where former One Direction singer Liam Payne was found dead after he fell from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Geoff Payne, the father of the late ex-One Direction singer Liam Payne, leaves his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, two days after his son died, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)

Fans of former One Direction singer Liam Payne gather at the Obelisk to honor him one day after he was found dead at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

FILE - One Direction members, from left, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne perform on NBC's "Today" show, Nov. 13, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

Fans of former One Direction singer Liam Payne gather at the Obelisk to honor him one day after he was found dead at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

An ambulance carrying the body former One Direction singer Liam Payne leaves the hotel where he was found dead after he fell from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

FILE - One Direction members, from right, Liam Payne and Harry Styles perform on ABC's "Good Morning America" at Rumsey Playfield/SummerStage on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

A picture of former One Direction singer Liam Payne sits surrounded by flowers and candles as fans gather outside the hotel where he was found dead after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Geoff Payne, the father of the late ex-One Direction singer Liam Payne, center, leaves his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, two days after his son died, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.

The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.

Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.

“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.

Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.

Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.

She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.

The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.

The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.

Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.

“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”

Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.

The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.

That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.

Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.

For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.

Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.

"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”

An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)