Palestinian American returns to besieged West Bank home but Israeli settlers remain

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian American whose home in the occupied West Bank has been besieged for more than a week confronted Israeli settlers on Tuesday and demanded Israeli forces remove them from his property.

But on his first day back at his home in the village of Qusra, Loui Ridi was ultimately told to go back inside because the area was a closed military zone.

Israeli soldiers asked the settlers to leave the area as well, but Ridi said he saw at least three settlers close enough to return and threaten his family if the army leaves.

“If I need to walk outside of my house, I’m not able. I have to get a permission and coordination and it’s going to take hours if it’s even possible to leave,” Ridi said.

Ridi yelled at one of the settlers to get off his property and pleaded with the soldiers to remove them, according to video he shared with The Associated Press. He told the settler that he wasn’t allowed to be there and called him a terrorist.

The soldiers who told Ridi to get back inside his home also pleaded with settlers to leave peacefully.

For Ridi, the exchange extinguished any sense of victory remaining after he managed, with the aid of a military escort, to enter his home on Monday. He said the encounter epitomized how the army has been unable or unwilling to clear the area of settlers.

“As soon as (Israeli soldiers) leave — like if they leave today — probably on the same day or a couple hours later, the settlers may come back and build the same tent in front of my house,” he said.

Some 2.8 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centers. Roughly 560,000 Israeli settlers who live in a growing number of communities and farming outposts across the territory. Emboldened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, extremist settlers have routinely attacked villages and set homes, cars and mosques ablaze in the occupied West Bank this year.

The international community largely considers Israeli settlements to be illegal and obstacles to peace.

Few episodes garner as much international attention as the siege in Qusra. However, settlers have staged takeovers of other Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank. In the neighboring village of Jalud, settlers surrounded a home last month and prevented Palestinians from entering or exiting until they decided to escape and not come back.

Palestinian officials report 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers this year. Three Israelis have been killed including two in a nearby clash last month.

Much like in Qusra, violent settlers rarely face arrest by Israeli police or prosecution in Israeli courts.

Ridi, a 46-year-old who lives with his family in Ohio but has a second home in the Qusra, arrived on Monday, climbing his stairs and raising an American flag on his roof.

The United States — Israel’s closest ally — has condemned the ongoing siege in Qusra, now in its tenth day. President Donald Trump has said he opposes Israeli efforts to annex the West Bank but signaled broad acceptance of settlements and, at the start of his second term, lifted sanctions on settlers accused of violence.

Ridi said he can’t go out to buy groceries without permission and has asked U.S. officials to help guarantee he can bring supplies back to his home in the closed military zone on Qusra's outskirts.

Ridi said he slept for four hours in a room where he kept the shutters closed because settlers had previously thrown rocks toward the windows.

When he woke up Tuesday and went outside to confront the settlers and soldiers, one settler demanded in Hebrew that the soldiers make him go back inside, saying Ridi’s yard belonged to them.

“Take them to their home. You said it’s a closed military zone,” the settler told an Israeli soldier, according to Ridi’s video.

The soldiers told everyone to leave, saying, “We don’t need this commotion.”

Israel's military said Tuesday that the closed military zone had been cleared but did not answer questions about settlers' presence in and around the Palestinian village.

Soldiers have repeatedly dismantled their tents and shades in the area only to have the settlers return to area on the outskirts of a village 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Palestinian city of Nablus.

One settler was detained last week but Israeli police have not reported any arrests. Ridi fears settlers could ramp up attacks on his home moments after Israeli soldiers leave, much like other areas where settlers have staged takeovers of Palestinian homes.

Ridi said his two daughters in Ohio have stayed up past their bedtimes worried for his safety, texting that they miss him and asking if he is all right.

“I have to lie and say, ‘No, I’m safe. I’m OK. It’s safe here,’ because I want her to sleep,” he said.

Ohio-based Palestinian-American landlord Loui Ridi, raised the American flag on the roof of his house that is besieged by Israeli settlers for over a week, in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra, south of Nablus, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Israeli soldiers sit under a tent in front of the house of Ohio-based Palestinian-American landlord Loui Ridi, that is besieged by Israeli settlers for over a week, in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra, south of Nablus, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Israeli soldiers sit under a tent in front of the house of Ohio-based Palestinian-American landlord Loui Ridi, that is besieged by Israeli settlers for over a week, in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra, south of Nablus, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Loui Ridi, an Ohio-based Palestinian-American landlord of one of the homes besieged by Israeli settlers for over a week, arrives at his parent's home upon his return from the U.S., in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra, south of Nablus, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian court ruled Tuesday that one of three serial killers convicted over the murders of 11 people in one of the country's most notorious criminal cases can be released from prison, rejecting a state government's bid to block his parole.

The victims were killed over seven years, and most of their bodies were found in 1999 in barrels of acid in Snowtown, a small town north of the South Australia state capital, Adelaide. The discovery led the crimes to become known as the “Bodies-in-Barrels” murders.

Three judges of the South Australia Court of Appeal upheld a parole board decision made last month to release the youngest of the three convicted murderers, James Vlassakis.

Vlassakis, now 46, was 18 when his crimes began in 1998. He pleaded guilty to four murders, including those of a half brother and stepbrother. He became a star witness for the prosecution, and was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 26 years, which expired in August of last year.

He was granted parole in December but the state government succeeded in overturning that parole board decision.

The discovery of dismembered bodies in a derelict Snowtown bank branch and a yearlong trial that ended in 2003 captured the nation's attention at the time, inspiring books and the 2011 movie “Snowtown.”

Parole board chair Frances Nelson argued Vlassakis had “always been remorseful and contrite.” He had not been diagnosed with any anti-social personality disorder and his prison behavior has been “excellent,” she said.

South Australia Attorney-General Kyam Maher, who had unsuccessfully challenged the parole decision, instead argued that the traumatic nature of the crimes justified keeping Vlassakis behind bars.

“The gravity and the effect this has had on South Australia (and) the need for community safety were always the primary concerns of the state government,” Maher told reporters.

“This is definitely indelibly marked on the psyche of South Australia. These were horrific crimes that were committed against innocent people. Families of victims, friends and whole communities were deeply affected by this,” Maher said.

Nelson told reporters the parole board “would not have recommended his release on parole if we thought he was a risk.”

"So for the attorney general to say that he presented a risk, I think, caused unnecessary alarm in the community,” Nelson said.

Vlassakis was the stepson of the killers’ ringleader, John Bunting. Bunting killed people he suspected of being pedophiles or gay. He ordered some killed because he disliked overweight people and drug users. Victims’ social security payments were stolen.

Bunting was convicted of 11 murders and his neighbor, Robert Wagner, was convicted of 10. Both had been active in neo-Nazi groups. Charges of a 12th murder were dropped because of a lack of evidence. Both were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Another accomplice, Mark Haydon, who pleaded guilty to helping dispose of two bodies, was released from prison in 2024 after serving a 25-year sentence. A jury had failed to reach verdicts on two murder charges against him.

The former bank building where dismembered bodies were stored in barrels is photographed in Snowtown, Australia, on Oct. 22, 2002. (Rob Hutchison/AAP Image via AP)