By Anadolu staff
RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL (AA) - Three Palestinians were injured Tuesday in attacks by illegal Israeli settlers targeting olive pickers across the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.
Illegal settlers attacked farmers from the towns of Sinjil and Turmusayya, north of Ramallah, preventing them from reaching their olive groves, the sources told Anadolu, adding that Israeli forces intervened and fired tear gas canisters at the scene.
In the northern West Bank, witnesses told Anadolu that about 100 illegal settlers assaulted Palestinian families harvesting olives in the town of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya, beating them and injuring at least two people.
Witnesses also said that an elderly Palestinian man was bruised after illegal settlers attacked farmers in Jurish, south of Nablus. They said the illegal settlers forced the farmers to leave their lands.
The attacks came amid a sharp rise in settler violence against Palestinian farmers during the annual olive harvest, which typically begins in mid-October each year.
According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, illegal Israeli settlers carried out 7,154 assaults on Palestinians and their properties in the occupied West Bank over the course of two years, which resulted in the death of 33 Palestinians and forced migration of 33 Bedouin communities.
The commission’s head, Muayyad Shaaban, said Israeli forces and illegal settlers had carried out a total of 259 attacks against olive pickers since the start of this year’s harvest season.
Shaaban said in a statement that they documented 41 attacks by Israeli forces and 218 by illegal settlers across various parts of the West Bank. The assaults, he said, included “violent physical assaults, arrests, movement restrictions, intimidation in all forms, and direct gunfire.”
Shaaban added that Ramallah recorded 83 attacks, Nablus 69, and Hebron 34, noting that assaults since the beginning of the season have damaged about 1,070 olive trees.
He described the current harvest as “the most difficult and dangerous in decades,” citing Israel’s increased use of “closed military zones” to block Palestinian access to farmland.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, this year’s yield is among the weakest in decades, with production estimated at only 15% of the average level.
The ministry said Palestine produced about 27,300 tons of olive oil in 2024, up from just 10,000 tons in 2023.
Israeli attacks have escalated across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, killing more than 1,062 Palestinians and injuring 10,300 others, according to Palestinian figures.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.