Israeli Settlers Intensify Olive Harvest Attacks, Killing One and Wounding Over 120

Palestine weekly: Israeli settlers launch fresh assault on journalist and diplomats as Gaza imports stall. This week marks the peak of settler olive harvest aggression, pushing the 2025 total to a grim new high. United Nations deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq confirmed Friday that OCHA logged over 200 attacks against Palestinian farmers since September 1. That figure surpasses the entire count from last year's full season.

One Palestinian died already. More than 120 others suffered injuries. Over 2,500 trees took damage in these violent raids. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission added its own tally: 34 attacks Friday injured at least 19 people, followed by another 40 incidents on Saturday.

Religious figures appear to back this widespread theft and violence. Rabbi Dov Lior, spiritual guide for National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party, gave settlers green light to pick olives from Palestinian orchards. He claimed Jews are permitted to harvest in areas far from settlements just to prove ownership and fulfill conquest commands.

An olive tree today outweighs an M16 rifle in the Judea and Samaria campaign, one post read in a settler chat group this week. Sarit Michaeli, former international advocacy director at B'Tselem, called the scale of crop theft never seen before in her 22-year career on this issue. Dozens of assaults hit harvesters daily under this ideological push.

On October 16 in Abu Falah northeast of Ramallah, about 80 masked settlers armed with clubs charged at olive pickers. Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, age 63, fell during the chaos and took a beating for more than 10 minutes. Videos and her own account confirm the duration. She suffered broken ribs and needed hand surgery. Her camera, phone, and passport vanished from her person. Activist Jonathan Pollak noted soldiers later shot village council member Abdel Jaber Obeid in the thigh.

Saturday brought new horror as masked settlers with clubs attacked a delegation visiting Taybeh east of Ramallah. The group included Belgium's consul general plus French and Polish diplomats alongside church representatives. A window on the Belgian consulate vehicle shattered during the raid. French mayor Bernard Baudoux, 78 years old, received kicks and beatings before the violence ended.

Washington Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was very disturbed by these events. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee labeled Levine's attack a despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards. France demanded arrests immediately. The European Union stated it expected full accountability for these crimes. Israel's military called the Taybeh incident severe. Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot described settler violence as Jewish terror under the auspices of the Israeli government, per The Times of Israel report. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office offered a conditional condemnation on Levine's attack alone. They said questions remained about who initiated the violence before any judgment could stand.

An official from the Israeli government offered a vague response regarding the Taybeh assault, noting that "the more serious the accusation, the stronger the evidence required." That hesitation stood in stark contrast to Monday's decisive actions by police and Shin Bet. Those agencies launched Operation Olive Leaf, sweeping through areas near Ofra and Shiloh to detain ten Israelis linked to the recent assaults on foreign journalists and diplomats.

Yet, silence surrounds dozens of other incidents reported this weekend alone. No new arrests or investigations have been announced for those settler attacks against Palestinians. Masked settlers, frequently backed by soldiers, targeted farmers, livestock, homes, and land across the West Bank. The violence spread quickly: two women received beatings in Beit Lid on Tuesday, while an American citizen named Haytham Tayseer suffered deep head wounds after being injured in Burqa on Thursday. In Ma'in within Masafer Yatta, six people including four women and a child were hurt on Saturday according to the Red Crescent. Elsewhere, settlers burned four vehicles in Turmus Aya, one of which belonged to civil defence, and ignited a mosque in Mikhmas as Palestinian agency Wafa reported. In Kafr Malek, locals say settlers stabbed about 20 sheep to death while bulldozers tore up hundreds of olive trees nearby. Further destruction occurred near Bethlehem where workers cut down 120 olive trees in Kisan.

The situation in Gaza is spiraling downward with alarming speed. Israel declared on October 14 that no commercial goods could enter the enclave, blaming a fight between merchants and Hamas over a 10,000-shekel fee per truck, that sum equals roughly $3,220. The Palestinian Government Media Office dismissed this claim as "blatant disinformation," insisting the payment was a voluntary contribution for widows and orphans. By Sunday, prices had skyrocketed. A carton of eggs jumped from 35 shekels to between 60 and 70 shekels, while a sack of flour rose from roughly 25-35 shekels to about 80 shekels. The World Food Programme announced it would reduce the number of people it feeds monthly in Gaza from 1.6 million down to 1.1 million. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry stated that 466 people have died of malnutrition since 2024 and that 67 percent of the population faces crisis-level food insecurity by year's end.

Violence continued unabated as Israeli forces killed Palestinians in Gaza every single day. As of October 19, the cumulative death toll since last year's so-called ceasefire reached 74,480. The Health Ministry recorded 1,522 killed and 5,421 wounded since that date, with 27 deaths in the past week compared to 33 the week prior and 38 before that. Among those lost were three children: Muhammad Riyad Abu Hammad, fourteen years old, died in Deir el-Balah when shrapnel pierced his school bag on Saturday; Misk Hazem al-Dalu fell in Maghazi camp on Sunday; and Tamer Shadi Subh died in Beit Lahiya the same day. UNICEF noted that more than 340 children have been killed since the ceasefire began. Drone strikes claimed the lives of Ahmad Raja al-Shaer and Basel Nabil Qeshta in al-Qarara, Reem Awad in a Gaza City apartment strike, Mahmoud al-Madhoun and Ubaida Murtaja in another city hit, Abdullah and Imad Jaber along with Sheikh Majid al-Sabbagh in Tuffah on October 17, Amer al-Horani near a Jabalia clinic the same day, and police officer Abd al-Jawad Joudeh in Rafah. Shooting incidents killed Saddam al-Za'anin in Jabalia, Hatem Abu Hasanein by quadcopter fire, Huda Abu Adwan at forty-nine in al-Mawasi, and Wijdan Shurrab at twenty-eight in eastern Khan Younis. Israel's military stated that several of these victims were Hamas members.

None of its claims has been independently verified. On Saturday, Israeli forces pushed the "Yellow Line" further into Shujayea. They placed concrete blocks on al-Qa'qa Street to mark the boundary. This line separates areas under Israeli control from those that are not. Right now, that controlled zone stretches across about 65 percent of Gaza. The advance goes far beyond what was planned in last year's "ceasefire" agreement.