Israeli settlers attack [PALESTINIAN] olive farmers and Washington Post journalist in West Bank: Settlers hurl rocks at Palestinians and beat photographer Heidi Levine as part of yearly attacks to disrupt harvest

 Palestine 

William Christou

Fri 16 Oct 2026 10.06 EDT

Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinians across the occupied West Bank in a coordinated movement to disrupt the annual olive harvest, burning cars and trees and injuring Palestinians and a Washington Post photographer.

Masked settlers wielding clubs and other weapons attacked Palestinians attempting to harvest their olives in towns across the West Bank on Friday. At least six people had been injured in the town of Abu Falah near Ramallah, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

At least 80 settlers, some of whom were carrying firearms or clubs, gathered to stop Palestinians from harvesting their olives in Abu Falah, using slingshots to hurl rocks at the farmers in view of Israeli military jeeps. When some of the Palestinians then picked up rocks to defend themselves, the Israeli military fired teargas in their direction.

The Israeli foreign press association said in a statement: “This is the latest in a long line of violent attacks by Israeli settlers against journalists and other civilians in the occupied West Bank. Yet our repeated calls for action to confront this lawlessness have been ignored by Israeli authorities.”

Among those injured was the Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, who was beaten by settlers in an attack that lasted more than 10 minutes, according to witnesses. Settlers stole her passport, phone, wallet and equipment.

“I was attacked, pushed to the ground. Luckily, I had my flak jacket and helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn’t even be here, because they just kept kicking and kicking me,” Levine said from a hospital bed in Ramallah. She said the attack had ended when her Palestinian colleagues intervened to save her.

In a statement, the Washington Post said that Levine had been wearing visible markings clearly identifying her as a journalist.

The coordinated assault came amid a surge of settler violence against Palestinians over the past month. Settlers have carried out at least 170 attacks since 27 September, around the start of the annual olive harvest, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group.

Every year, settlers attack Palestinians trying to harvest their olives, but this year’s harvest has seen an uptick in violence as Israel’s... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/16/israeli-settlers-attack-olive-farmers-west-bank-washington-post-journalist-heidi-levine

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Israel imposed new rules on the olive harvest this year, barring Palestinians from harvesting their trees located in Area C – an area under the Israeli military’s control, which comprises most of the West Bank’s agricultural land. 

Israel’s settlement expansion drives mass displacement in West Bank [Palestine] – United Nations report 17 March 2026

© Wahaj Bani Moufleh / Middle East Images via AFP

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/03/israels-settlement-expansion-drives-mass-displacement-west-bank-un-report 

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GENEVA – The Government of Israel has accelerated unlawful settlement expansion and annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, forcibly displacing over 36,000 Palestinians amid increasing violence by Israeli security forces and settlers, says a UN Human Rights Office report.

The report, which covers the 12-month period up to 31 October 2025, documents 1,732 incidents of settler violence resulting in casualties or property damage, compared to 1,400 in the previous reporting period. This includes relentless harassment, intimidation, and destruction of homes and farmland.

“Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct,” the report says, making it difficult to distinguish between State and settler violence. Longstanding and pervasive impunity is “facilitating and encouraging violence against and harassment of Palestinians”, it adds.

Last October, around the time of the olive harvest, the report documented 42 settler attacks leading to the injury of 131 Palestinians, including 14 women and a boy, the highest number recorded in a single month since 2006. Daily attacks by armed settlers, soldiers and “settler soldiers” – many of whom have been armed, equipped and trained by State authorities – along with the closure of more land to Palestinian landowners and harvesters made the 2025 season the worst in decades.

In some cases, the report found acts of gender-based violence became the final trigger for displacement. Other attacks led to family separation in which women and children were forced to leave, while male family members remained to attempt to retain possession of lands and properties.

“The displacement in the occupied West Bank, which coincides with the extensive displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, at the hands of the Israeli military, appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing,” the report says.

It pointed to the heightened risk of displacement faced by thousands of Palestinians from Bedouin communities located northeast of East Jerusalem due to the advancement of settlement plans, adding that the unlawful transfer of protected people is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The report notes that such acts potentially incur the individual criminal responsibility of officials engaged in them, and under certain circumstances, may also amount to a crime against humanity.

The report also concludes that the transfer of power from the Israeli military to civilian authorities, measures to confiscate Palestinian lands for settlement expansion, as well as other discriminatory policies and practices “amounted to an institutionalised regime of systematic discrimination, oppression and violence by Israel against Palestinians”, violating the international law prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid.

The report points to the advancement or approval by Israeli authorities of 36,973 housing units in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and around 27,200 in the rest of the West Bank. An unprecedented 84 new outposts were also established during the reporting period. The report also notes the expansion of settlement activity into Area B of the occupied West Bank, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority according to the Oslo agreements.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calls on Israel to immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of settlements, for the evacuation all settlers, and an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territory. Israel must also enable the return of displaced Palestinians, and stop all practices of land confiscation, forced evictions and house demolitions.

To read the full report, click here.

 https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc6170-israeli-settlements-occupied-palestinian-territory-including

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Israel approves 19 new illegal settlements further limiting Palestinain movement and undermining the prospect of a two-state solution to end the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Illegal settlement expansion: How Israel is redrawing occupied West Bank

Israel’s approval of 19 new settlements stands to redraw the occupied West Bank, undermining prospect of two-state solution.

By Yashraj Sharma

 Published On 22 Dec 202522 Dec 2025

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/22/illegal-settlement-expansion-how-israel-is-redrawing-occupied-west-bank 

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The Israeli security cabinet has approved 19 new settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank as the right-wing government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moves to prevent the formation of a viable Palestinian state.

As Netanyahu’s government has made the annexation of occupied Palestinian territory a priority, the United Nations has said Israeli settlement expansions in 2025 have reached their highest level since 2017.

“These figures represent a sharp increase compared to previous years,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, noting an average of 12,815 housing units were added annually from 2017 to 2022.

Under the current far-right government, the number of settlement and outposts in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem has risen by nearly 50 percent – from 141 in 2022 to 210 now. An outpost is built without government authorisation while a settlement is authorised by the Israeli government.

Nearly 10 percent of Israel’s Jewish population of 7.7 million people lives in these settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.

Here’s everything you need to know about the newly approved settlements and what they mean for the future of Palestinian statehood.

..... * * go to original article to read all the details

Israel’s construction spree is entrenching the occupation and squeezing Palestinians out of their homeland. Settlements dot the West Bank and are often connected by Israeli-only highways while Palestinians face roadblocks and security checks, making their daily commutes harrowing experiences.

Israel has also built Separation Barrier that stretches for more than 700km (435 miles) through the West Bank restricting movement of Palestinians. Israel says the wall is for security purposes.

Under a dual legal system, Palestinians are tried in Israel’s military courts while crimes committed by settlers are referred to a civilian court.

..... * * go to original article to read all the details

Israel controls most of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory Palestinians want to be part of a future state along with Gaza. Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in a 1967 war. It later annexed East Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as their future capital.

Israeli settlements and outposts are Jewish-only communities built on Palestinian land and they can range in size from a single dwelling to a collection of high-rises. About 700,000 settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Peace Now.

..... *  * go to original article to read all the details

Israel still controls nearly half of Gaza’s territory since a ceasefire was announced on October 10 after more than two years of a genocidal war killed more than 70,000 Palestinians. 

.... *  * go to original article to read all the details

The UN chief has condemned what he described as Israel’s “relentless” expansion of settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. It “continues to fuel tensions, impede access by Palestinians to their land and threaten the viability of a fully independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state”, Guterres said this month.

Palestinians have also been facing increasing settler violence since Israel’s war on Gaza began.

According to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), settlers have attacked Palestinians nearly 3,000 times over the past two years.

Settler attacks often escalate during the olive harvest from September to November, a vital time of year that provides a key source of income for many Palestinian families.

Settlers are often armed and frequently accompanied or protected by Israeli soldiers. In addition to destroying Palestinian property, they have carried out arson attacks and killed Palestinian residents.

Every West Bank governorate has faced settler attacks over the past two years, data from OCHA shows.

Every West Bank governorate has faced settler attacks over the past two years, data from OCHA shows.

Are the settlements legal under international law?

No. The UN, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Committee of the Red Cross all consider Israeli settlements as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which outlaws settler activity.

In a landmark judgement in July 2024, the ICJ, the UN’s top court, found that Israel’s occupation, settlement activity and annexation measures are illegal. In its nonbinding advisory opinion, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s continued presence in occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible”.

The judges pointed to a wide list of policies – including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians – all of which it said violated international law.

Two months later, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding that Israel end its occupation of Palestinian territory within a year.

But Israel has defied the resolution by the global body backed by its ally – the United States. Washington has extended diplomatic cover to Israel against numerous UN resolutions.... READ MORE   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/22/illegal-settlement-expansion-how-israel-is-redrawing-occupied-west-bank 

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Palestinians harvest olives near the occupied West Bank village of Turmus Aya near Ramallah on October 19, 2025 [Hazem Bader/AFP]

* go to original article to read all the details

Crackdown on Palestinian civil society: Union of Agricultural Work Committees raided by Israel

 https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/crackdown-palestinian-civil-society-union-agricultural-work-committees-raided-enar

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                                    Source

•                   OHCHR

Originally published

3 Dec 2025

•  Download Report (PDF | 462.27 KB)
•  Download Report (PDF | 247.55 KB)

Crackdown on Palestinian civil society: Union of Agricultural Work Committees raided

On Monday, 1 December, Israeli security forces raided and vandalised the offices of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a Palestinian non-governmental organisation, in Ramallah and Hebron. This comes amidst an escalating Israeli targeting of Palestinian civil society and human rights defenders, most recently in the context of the olive harvest season.

UAWC is one of six leading Palestinian civil society organisations designated as “terrorist” by Israeli authorities in 2021 based on an Israeli legislation that has vague and broad definitions of terrorism and terrorist organisations, which not only risks but has demonstrably led to unjustifiable restrictions on human rights. To date, no evidence was provided to substantiate the accusations. Licensed under Palestinian law, UAWC has long provided support to Palestinian rural communities and Palestinian farmers facing settler violence and the risk of forced displacement. The attack on UAWC followed weeks of harassment and public incitement by Israeli settlers and leaders of settler groups, particularly citing UAWC’s work during the olive harvest season.

This year’s olive harvest season is the most violent on record, with 167 settler attacks affecting 87 Palestinian communities recorded as of 12 November. Increasingly, attacks by settlers and Israeli security forces targeted not only farmers, but also human rights defenders and organisations supporting them against settler violence. Since 1 October, the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has recorded 81 violations by Israeli security forces and/or settlers against human rights defenders, protective presence activists and NGOs supporting Palestinians against settler violence and settlement expansion, including 48 cases of arrest and detention and 22 acts of physical assault.

Unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, arbitrary detention, and torture or other forms of ill-treatment are permanent features in the conduct of Israeli security forces against Palestinians and Palestinian activists. During the raid, Israeli security forces reportedly kept the people who were present at UAWC premises blindfolded and handcuffed, kneeling down, or with their faces down on the floor for several hours and detained eight men.

The conduct of Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is massively shrinking both the physical and the civic space available to Palestinians, while Israel continues to advance its unlawful annexation of the occupied West Bank.

“The legal way forward is clear: Israel must end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and remove all settlers in accordance with the conclusions of the International Court of Justice,” said Ajith Sunghay, the Head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “In the meantime, Israel is an occupying power with extensive duties under international law, including respecting, protecting and ensuring the fulfilment of Palestinians’ human rights, such as the rights to earn a living, and to freedom of expression and association.”

For more information and media requests, please contact:

Mayy El Sheikh – mayy.elsheikh@un.org

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Olive Harvest in Palestine

Marvelous photo of a multi-generational Palestinian family’s olive picking in the occupied West Bank village of Duma. Photo credit- Omar Dawabsheh

Unknown little girl in Palestine Traditional Thobe Dress Holding freshly picked Olives

Olive Tree in Palestine

Falastine Tree

Old Photo of an Ancient Olive Tree in Palestine

Palestine- view from an olive tree

The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) is a non-profit organization that offers journalists facts, analysis, experts, and digital resources about Palestine and Palestinians.

Sorting Olives in Palestine

The tasty Palestinian traditional meal Manakish, consisting of dough topped with thyme, cheese, or ground meat, surrounded by olives

 & a poem from Palestine

The Second Olive Tree

By Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008)

                                                                                       Translated from Arabic by Marilyn Hacker

The olive tree does not weep and does not laugh. The olive tree
Is the hillside’s modest lady. Shadow
Covers her one leg, and she will not take her leaves off in front of the storm.
Standing, she is seated, and seated, standing.
She lives as a friendly sister of eternity, neighbor of time
That helps her stock her luminous oil and
Forget the invaders’ names, except the Romans, who
Coexisted with her, and borrowed some of her branches
To weave wreaths. They did not treat her as a prisoner of war
But as a venerable grandmother, before whose calm dignity
Swords shatter. In her reticent silver-green
Color hesitates to say what it thinks, and to look at what is behind
The portrait, for the olive tree is neither green nor silver.
The olive tree is the color of peace, if peace needed
A color. No one says to the olive tree: How beautiful you are!
But: How noble and how splendid! And she,
She who teaches soldiers to lay down their rifles
And re-educates them in tenderness and humility: Go home
And light your lamps with my oil! But
These soldiers, these modern soldiers
Besiege her with bulldozers and uproot her from her lineage
Of earth. They vanquished our grandmother who foundered,
Her branches on the ground, her roots in the sky.
She did not weep or cry out.  But one of her grandsons
Who witnessed the execution threw a stone
At a soldier, and he was martyred with her.
After the victorious soldiers
Had gone on their way, we buried him there, in that deep
Pit – the grandmother’s cradle. And that is why we were
Sure that he would become, in a little while, an olive
Tree – a thorny olive tree – and green! 

 ~

Some Old photos of Historic Palestine Olive Harvest

Old photos of Historic Palestine Olive Harvest