Friday's attacks during the harvest

On Friday, masked settlers armed with clubs and other weapons attacked people trying to pick olives in West Bank towns, and Palestinian authorities recorded incidents in eight villages that left at least 20 people injured.

• •In Abu Falah, near Ramallah, a crowd of at least 80 settlers - some with firearms or clubs - halted the pickers and fired rocks at farmers with slingshots while Israeli military vehicles stood nearby.
• •When some Palestinians picked up rocks in response, the military fired teargas towards them.
• •Hours earlier, near Turmus Ayya, settlers attacked Palestinians harvesting olives and set three cars on fire.

Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine was beaten for more than 10 minutes in the violence, according to witnesses, and settlers took her passport, phone, wallet and equipment. Speaking from a hospital bed in Ramallah, she said: "Luckily, I had my flak jacket and helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn't even be here, because they just kept kicking and kicking me". She said the attack ended when her Palestinian colleagues stepped in.

Access barred to most agricultural land

Area C, the segment of the West Bank under Israeli military control, holds the bulk of the territory's farmland - and this year Israel has stopped Palestinians from picking olives on their own trees there.

Fresh military orders now require Israeli approval before Palestinians may set foot on roughly 8,800 hectares (21,800 acres) of farmland, a figure 30% higher than a year ago. Meanwhile, Peace Now reports that the area closed off to Israeli citizens to keep settler violence in check has shrunk, dropping from about 1,070 hectares in 2025 to 680 hectares in 2026.

Olive crop theft on an unprecedented scale

Footage released by the rights group B'tselem captured hundreds of bags of olives that settlers had violently taken from Palestinians and delivered to Israeli olive presses. Activist Sarit Michaeli said the scale of olive crop theft by settlers was "never seen before in my 22-year history of working on this issue".

A harvest under growing pressure

Picking olives is an economic lifeline for Palestinians, and one that matters more now that Israel cancelled work permits for many West Bank residents following the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023. It has also turned deadly: over the past month, Palestinian authorities said, at least four Palestinians died and more than 100 were wounded, and thousands of trees were damaged.

Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, has logged at least 170 settler attacks since 27 September, close to the start of the annual harvest, and the report notes the violence has climbed this year as Israel's elections draw near at the end of October.

Rights groups say settlers who carry out such attacks are rarely held to account and count on the protection of the Israeli military, which steps in only when Palestinians try to defend themselves. Netanyahu has at times condemned the violence - which he attributes to about 100 settlers - but has taken few steps to stop it, and settlements have expanded rapidly under his rightwing government. The UN and most countries judge settlements to violate international law.