Bethlehem: At least 11 Palestinians were injured on Saturday in attacks by illegal armed Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, official sources said.
According to Anadolu Agency, a group of illegal armed settlers, backed by Israeli forces, attacked residents near the village of Al-Minya, southeast of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank. The settlers fired live bullets at the residents, injuring three in the lower limbs, stated Zayed Kawazbeh, head of the village council, to the official news agency Wafa. The injured were subsequently hospitalized for medical attention.
Kawazbeh reported that the illegal settlers also allowed their livestock to graze among Palestinian olive trees, describing this as 'a deliberate provocation aimed at displacing residents and seizing lands adjacent to nearby settlements.' He noted that Israeli forces were present at the scene, providing protection to the settlers, which increased fear and tension among the villagers.
The incident followed another attack by illegal settlers on Palestinians harvesting olives in the village of Burin, south of Nablus. Several Palestinians were assaulted during this attack. Another incident occurred against Palestinian farmers and foreign supporters during an olive-picking activity on Mount Qamas, east of Beita town in Nablus in the northern West Bank. Illegal settlers set fire to several olive trees and stole some bags of harvested crops from the area.
Further, illegal settlers raided the Khirbet Makhul community in the northern Jordan Valley, spreading fear among children and women, as reported by the news agency. In addition, settlers attacked the Al-Ma'azi Bedouin community, east of Jaba town in occupied East Jerusalem, hurling stones at Palestinian homes and burning rubber tires. No injuries were reported there.
Later in the evening, the Palestinian Health Ministry stated that medical teams at Rafidia Governmental Hospital in Nablus treated eight people who were injured after being assaulted by illegal settlers and Israeli soldiers in Nablus' towns of Tell, Burin, and Sebastia.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the current olive harvest season in the occupied West Bank has witnessed the highest level of illegal settler attacks since 2020. The agency noted that 126 attacks were recorded in 70 Palestinian towns and villages, with over 4,000 olive trees and saplings vandalized.
The attacks occurred amid a sharp increase in settler violence against Palestinian farmers during the annual olive harvest, which typically begins in mid-October each year. According to the official Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, 259 attacks on Palestinians have been carried out by the Israeli army and illegal settlers during the olive harvest season.
Israeli attacks have intensified across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,062 Palestinians and injuries to 10,300 others, according to Palestinian figures. In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.