In the heart of the West Bank, the 2025 olive harvest season—once a time of communal celebration and economic hope—has instead become a period marked by violence, fear, and devastation for Palestinian farmers and their families. Over the past month, a surge in attacks by Israeli settlers, often accompanied or protected by Israeli military forces, has left a trail of injuries, scorched farmland, and shattered livelihoods across the occupied territory.
According to reports from DW, The New Arab, and local activist documentation, the violence has not only intensified but become more systematic. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented more than 126 attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their land since the start of the olive harvest in October 2025. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) puts the number even higher, recording at least 259 attacks this season alone, with 41 attributed to the Israeli army and 218 to settlers.
For many Palestinians, olives are more than just a crop—they are a lifeline. The trees, some centuries old, represent both economic survival and deep-rooted cultural heritage. But this year’s harvest has been marred by relentless assaults. In Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, the Abu Aliya family now lives in constant fear. After masked settlers stormed their village and beat a woman with clubs—leaving her hospitalized with a head wound—the family’s sense of safety evaporated. “Of course I’m afraid, everyone here is afraid. I’m afraid of the settlers and the army that comes to our village every day,” the injured woman told DW. Another family member described narrowly escaping a mob of 40-50 settlers: “They were surprised that I managed to escape through one of the doors that they weren’t guarding. I ran away, and 40-50 settlers started chasing me.”
These are not isolated incidents. Settlers have rampaged through villages near Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus, and Bethlehem, setting fire to olive groves, cutting down trees, and physically assaulting farmers. In Khillet al-Farra near Hebron, settlers from the Otniel settlement released livestock into Palestinian vineyards and orchards before attacking villagers, leaving three with minor injuries. In a separate incident east of Yatta, an elderly Palestinian man and woman were injured when settlers attacked their homes, according to documentation by activist Osama Makhmara cited by Piri.
Further north, in the Turmus Ayya valley, settlers set fire to olive trees, destroying countless fruit-bearing trees and inflicting significant financial damage on local farmers. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that these acts of sabotage threaten the very livelihoods of families who depend on olive oil production as their primary source of income.
The violence has escalated alongside a broader political context. As The New Arab reports, the Knesset is currently voting on bills that would formally annex the West Bank, a move considered illegal by the United Nations and most of the international community. Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli military and settlers, with more than 1,065 fatalities and nearly 10,000 injuries reported since then, according to local authorities and corroborated by multiple sources.
In the northern West Bank, the destruction has been particularly acute. On November 4, 2025, illegal Israeli colonizers set fire to vast stretches of farmland north of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, near Nablus. Israeli forces reportedly prevented local residents from accessing the site to contain the blaze, a pattern repeated in other villages where military protection of settlers has been observed. Just a week earlier, colonizers from the illegal Taffuh colony razed Palestinian farmland and carved a new road near Yasuf and Iskaka east of Salfit, further entrenching their presence.
In Susiya, a village near Hebron in the southern West Bank, colonizers destroyed at least 30 fruit-bearing olive trees belonging to resident Ahmad Jaber Nawaj’a. Local activist Osama Makhamra described systematic sabotage targeting not just trees, but irrigation networks and electrical infrastructure, all part of what Palestinians see as a campaign to forcibly displace families from their ancestral lands.
Settlers have also been recorded stealing olive harvests in ‘Atara, northwest of Ramallah, and in Marah Rabah, south of Bethlehem, where they burnt trees, closed village roads, and hurled stones at Palestinian cars. On November 4, an illegal Israeli colonizer shot and killed Ahmad Ribhi Al-Atrash, a 32-year-old Palestinian man, at the northern entrance to Hebron city. The violence has touched nearly every corner of the West Bank: Tubas, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Khirbet Masoud, and Jurish have all seen homes and farmland targeted in recent days.
For those who have tended their trees for generations, the loss is deeply personal. Wadi Alkam, whose olive grove was almost completely destroyed, told DW: “It just destroys you mentally. These trees were 25 years old. I planted them myself, I took care of them for years, I watered them, I pruned them. I took care of them as if they were my own children.” The destruction of more than 4,000 olive trees and young saplings this season, as reported by the UN, is not just an economic blow but a cultural wound.
The violence is not limited to property. On October 28, 2025, Hikmat Shtwei, a farmer from Kafr Qaddum near Tulkarem, was ambushed by masked settlers who beat him and poured gasoline on his unconscious body, causing severe injuries including a fractured skull, brain hemorrhage, six broken ribs, and a broken jaw. He remains in intensive care, according to The New Arab. The attackers came from a nearby outpost erected only a day before. While such outposts are illegal under Israeli law, they are often legalized retroactively, transitioning from makeshift encampments to permanent settlements with military protection.
Palestinian farmers face additional obstacles as Israeli authorities increasingly deny them access to their own land, enforcing unofficial policies that require special permits to approach olive groves near settlements—permits that are rarely granted. In Al-Mughayyir, the Israeli army bulldozed 3,000 olive trees in August, clearing the way for settlers to construct a new Israeli-only road and further fragmenting Palestinian villages.
International law is clear: all Israeli colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal, and their establishment constitutes a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Yet, as new outposts spring up—84 in the past year alone, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)—the violence and displacement continue unabated.
Despite the mounting losses, many Palestinians remain determined to hold on to their land. “What is happening in the West Bank is not a series of isolated incidents, but a systematic policy aimed at displacing Palestinians and breaking their will. Despite this, our people remain steadfast on their land, planting olive trees through the flames,” Mohammad Omar of Beit Lid told The New Arab.
With the world’s attention often focused elsewhere, the olive groves of the West Bank stand as silent witnesses to a struggle over land, identity, and survival—one that shows no sign of abating as the harvest season draws to a close.