Israeli settlers Several Palestinian villages across the occupied West Bank have been attacked, as a wave of violence intensifies targeting residents harvesting their olive trees.
At least three Palestinians were injured Saturday when settlers attacked farmers in the village of Deir Needham, northwest of Ramallah, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
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Mujahid Tamimi, a local resident and activist, was quoted by Wafa as saying that settlers attacked farmers near the village’s western entrance, beating them with rifle butts and forcing them to leave their land.
Tamimi added that Israeli forces later entered the village to protect the settlers and detained 31-year-old resident Motassem Abdullah Tamimi.
Palestinians across the West Bank have faced a growing Israeli military presence and the attacks have come in the shadow of settler violence. Israel’s deadly war on the Gaza Strip starting in October 2023.
Israeli since then Settlers and military attacks According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 10,000 injured.
But this year’s olive harvest season, which usually begins in early October, has brought a new, sharper wave of violence.
Al Jazeera’s Noor Odeh reported that settler attacks “usually take place in the company and sometimes protect the Israeli soldiers who take part in them”.
“Settlers are armed, dangerous and many of them serve in the army – and that’s why human rights organizations accuse the Israeli army of complicity,” Odeh said, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “encouraged” the settlers. Netanyahu’s right-wing government.
“The attacks are aimed at driving Palestinians from their homes, creating an environment where living in one’s city is simply unsafe and unsafe,” she noted.
Harvesting olive trees is an important economic activity for many Palestinians and is significant Cultural significance In Palestinian society.
According to United Nations statistics, 80,000 to 100,000 families depend on olives and olive oil as their primary or secondary source of income.
Since the start of this year’s season, the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission has reported a total of 158 attacks on olive pickers.
Seventeen were committed by the Israeli army and 141 by the settlers, in what human rights groups described as total impunity for acts of violence against Palestinians.
For the second week in a row, Israeli forces have prevented farmers from crossing the West Bank to their land.
On Saturday, settlers sprayed pepper gas on Palestinian farmers in Kafr Malek, east of Ramallah, injuring several people.
In a separate incident in the village of Nahlin near Bethlehem, a settler and three Israeli soldiers beat 65-year-old Ahmed Shakarna while he was harvesting olives with his family.
In Beit Awwa, southwest of Hebron, Israeli forces fired tear gas and sound bombs at and dispersed farmers trying to reach their land in the al-Baqa area.
Meanwhile, in the villages of Aqraba and Kablan, south of Nablus, armed settlers, armed with attack dogs, beat farmers and confiscated their tools. Three Palestinians were injured in these attacks and forced off their land.
More than 700,000 Israeli settlers In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem – considered illegal under international law – live in more than 250 settlements and settlement outposts.
They have targeted Palestinian property more than 2,400 times in the past two years, displacing at least 3,055 people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.