DayofPal—The United Nations has warned that this year’s olive harvest is on track to be the most violent in more than a decade as Israeli settlers have intensified attacks against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians there have experienced a surge in settler and military attacks since Israel launched its Gaza war in 2023. But this year’s olive harvest season, which began last month, has brought an even greater increase in assault incidents.
According to the latest UN figures, released on Thursday, at least 126 Israeli settler attacks have been recorded in 70 Palestinian towns and villages so far this olive harvest season.
More than 4,000 olive trees and saplings also have been vandalised, the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA) found.
On Saturday, Wafa news reported several incidents of settler violence on Saturday, including in fields close to the towns of Beita and Huwara, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and in Sinjil, a town near Ramallah.
Three Palestinian farmers also were wounded in Al-Maniya, southeast of Bethlehem, after Israeli settlers opened fire on them as they were harvesting their olives.
“Attacks on the olive harvest threaten the very way of life for many Palestinians and further deepen the coercive environment in the occupied West Bank,” Roland Friedrich, director of UNRWA affairs in the West Bank, said in a statement shared on social media.
“Families should be allowed unhindered access to their lands to harvest their olives in safe conditions.”
“The annual olive harvest is the primary livelihood for tens of thousands of Palestinians, with olive trees deeply rooted in Palestinian heritage and identity,” he concluded.
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