Settler Attacks Surge in West Bank Olive Harvest

Violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank has surged during the annual olive harvest, with Israeli settlers carrying out dozens of attacks on farmers and their property in recent weeks. The incidents, concentrated in areas like Salfit, Nablus and Qalqilya, have included assaults, vandalism and arson, exacerbating tensions amid Israel's ongoing military occupation of the territory since 1967.

Local reports indicate that early Sunday, settlers vandalized cars outside Sinjil and raided farmland near Mughayyir. On Saturday, a farmer in Beit Furik east of Nablus was assaulted and his crops damaged. Additional attacks last week targeted agricultural workers in Beit Duqqu near Jerusalem, prevented plowing in al-Farisiyah in the northern Jordan Valley, burned olive trees near Qalqilya and assaulted farmers near Aqraba. In Beit Lid, dozens of masked settlers ransacked a light industrial park, torched 10 vehicles and injured four Palestinians; they also clashed with Israeli soldiers responding to the scene. On Thursday, settlers set fire to the Hajja Hamida Mosque in Deir Istiya, defacing its walls with anti-Palestinian graffiti and burning copies of the Quran.