Palestine weekly: Olive harvest opens under assault

What the report says

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank began early olive-picking efforts this week amid repeated attacks, property damage and access restrictions, according to Al Jazeera’s Oct. 6 report. The article says Israeli settlers and, in some cases, Israeli forces targeted harvesters across several areas, including villages near Nablus, Ramallah and Salfit, before the formal start of the season. Reported incidents included beatings, tear gas, gunfire, theft of olives and equipment, the burning of trees and crops, and the closure of farmland to its Palestinian owners.

Al Jazeera cited local media, Palestinian officials and activist accounts in describing attacks in places such as Jabal Qamas, Sinjil, Beita, Deir Istiya, Abu Dis and others. One man was said to be critically injured in an assault near Osarin, while other harvesters were reportedly hospitalized after being pepper-sprayed, struck or run over. The report also said some international volunteers and journalists were forced away from the scene in Beita. Separately, it noted two Palestinian deaths in incidents involving settlers and Israeli forces, as well as a man who died of cardiac arrest while detained at a checkpoint.

The report places the violence in a wider pattern of tensions in the West Bank, where settlers have long attacked Palestinian land users and the Israeli military often restricts movement. It also links the harvest-time unrest to broader political and security developments inside Israel and to continued Israeli strikes in Gaza, which Al Jazeera said were persisting despite a year-old ceasefire agreement.