Instead, before construction was complete, a ‌group of militant Israeli settlers seized the property.

Video filmed earlier in the week and verified by Reuters showed at least six militant Israeli settlers moving around on the roof of the two-storey house, which sits below a nearby hill.

Salameh said appeals to the Israeli military and police brought no help.

Now he fears his home, which like many others in the ​Palestinian territory is surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements and smaller outposts, is lost forever.

Other houses in the area could suffer the same fate, ​he said.

“Only God knows, if there is law and order then they will leave,” Salameh said.

“If they succeeded with taking ⁠one, then the rest will follow.”

Reuters was unable to reach the militant settlers for comment.

One of them could be seen walking on the house’s ​roof on Thursday.

The Israeli military said it received a report regarding the house earlier this week and that “soldiers arrived to the area and quickly acted to ​disperse the gathering”.

It did not comment on the extremist Jewish settlers’ continued presence in the house.

The Israeli military said law enforcement regarding actions by the extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank is the responsibility of Israel’s police, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Settler attacks widen

The seizure of Palestinian land by extremist settlers is a ​longstanding feature of life in the West Bank, where about 500,000 Israelis live among roughly 3 million Palestinians.

Palestinians have for years reported damage to ​farmland, vandalism and attacks linked to settlement expansion.

A UN inquiry reported last month that Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian villages and agricultural land had surged since 2023, rising ‌by 130%.

Residents ⁠of Jalud, Salameh’s village, say this week’s incident marks another troubling escalation because the settlers seized a house that was still under construction.

“They have now moved down to within no more than 100 meters from the last house in Jalud, which is also a house under construction belonging to a resident,” said Raed Al Haj Mohammad, head of the village council.

Jalud has faced five major settler attacks, he said, including the burning of homes, damage to vehicles ​and the uprooting of trees.

Most countries and ​the United Nations regard Israeli settlements ⁠in the West Bank as illegal under international law, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibition on transferring a civilian population into occupied territory.

Palestinians consider the West Bank, together with Gaza and East Jerusalem, ​as part of a ⁠Palestinian state.

Settlement building and settler violence have long been among the biggest obstacles to peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians.

Even Israel’s staunchest allies, including the United States, have condemned settler actions.

Nevertheless, settlement expansion has accelerated under radical Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which relies on militant pro-settlement parties to maintain its parliamentary ⁠majority.

For ​Salameh, the dispute is painfully personal.

Construction on the house stalled after the Gaza war ​erupted in 2023, when his son could not find work and the family’s finances came under strain.

“The neighbour close by has built a two-storey house, which they will probably take too, ​if we lose this house (his), they will lose theirs,” he said.