Palestinian Mohammad Salameh was building a new home for his family in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where his recently engaged son was set to begin married life.
Before the house could be completed, however, a group of Israeli settlers moved in and seized the property.
Video filmed earlier this week and verified by Reuters showed at least six settlers on the roof of the unfinished two-story house, which sits below a nearby hill.
Salameh said repeated appeals to the Israeli military and police went unanswered.
Now he fears the home is lost for good. He said other Palestinian homes in the area, many of them surrounded by Israeli settlements and smaller outposts, could face the same fate.
"Only God knows. If there is law and order, then they will leave," Salameh said. "If they succeed in taking one, then the rest will follow."
Reuters was unable to reach the settlers for comment. One of them was seen walking on the house's roof on Thursday.
The Israeli military said it was checking Reuters' request for comment but had not responded by Friday. Israeli police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The seizure of Palestinian land by settlers has long been a 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 U.N. 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, said this week's incident marked another troubling escalation because settlers seized a house that was still under construction.
"They have now moved to within no more than 100 meters (330 feet) of 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 consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on transferring a civilian population into occupied territory.
Israel rejects that position, saying the West Bank is disputed territory where there has been a Jewish presence for thousands of years.
Palestinians consider the West Bank, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, part of a future Palestinian state. Settlement construction 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 violence.
Nevertheless, settlement expansion has accelerated under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which relies on hard-line pro-settlement parties to maintain its parliamentary majority.
For Salameh, the dispute is deeply personal. Construction on the house stalled after the war in Gaza erupted in 2023, when his son was unable to find work and the family's finances came under strain.
"The neighbor nearby has built a two-story house, which they will probably take too. If we lose this house, they will lose theirs," he said.
