Ankara: The current olive harvest season in the occupied West Bank has seen the highest level of illegal settler attacks in five years, a UN agency said Saturday. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that 126 attacks occurred across 70 Palestinian towns and villages, with over 4,000 olive trees and saplings being vandalized.
According to Anadolu Agency, OCHA stated that the 2025 olive harvest season has witnessed unprecedented damage and a significant number of affected communities due to settler attacks since 2020. The agency documented that 60 of these attacks involved direct assaults on Palestinian civilians. In the past week, at least 17 individuals were injured and 19 vehicles were vandalized.
The UN agency highlighted that illegal Israeli settlers from newly established outposts have imposed access restrictions on Palestinian farmers, hindering their ability to reach their groves during the harvest. On Saturday, illegal settlers reportedly attacked Palestinian olive pickers in Burin, south of Nablus, assaulting several individuals, as reported by the official news agency Wafa.
Wafa detailed that settlers stormed farmland between Burin and Huwara, beating multiple harvesters and forcing them to leave the fields. The attackers also scattered the collected olives, leaving them on the ground. This incident is part of a broader increase in settler violence against Palestinian farmers during the annual olive harvest, which typically begins in mid-October.
According to the official Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, there have been 259 attacks on Palestinians by the Israeli army and settlers during this harvest season. The escalation of Israeli attacks across the occupied West Bank since October 2023 has resulted in over 1,062 Palestinian deaths and 10,300 injuries, based on Palestinian figures.
In a significant development last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory illegal, calling for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.