In a continuation of systematic violence targeting Palestinian agricultural life, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers—accompanied by an armed guard from the Yitzhar outpost—assaulted Palestinian civilians harvesting olives on Saturday in the lands between Burin and Huwarra, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank’s northern part.
The attackers beat several harvesters, forced them off their land, and scattered the olives they had collected.
Shortly after the attacks, Israeli soldiers and the paramilitary colonizers forced the Palestinians to leave their olive orchards.
On Friday, the colonizers invaded olive orchards in Burin, attacked Palestinian farmers and stole olive harvest.
These incidents are part of a broader campaign of settler terror aimed at severing Palestinians from their land and livelihood.
|Israeli Colonizers Burn Vehicles in Ramallah, Qalqilia, and Tulkarem|
The Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission stated that a total of 259 attacks have been documented against olive harvesters since the season began in early October. These include 41 assaults by Israeli occupation forces and 218 by colonizers.
The attacks range from physical violence and arbitrary arrests to movement restrictions, intimidation, and live fire—such as the recent shooting incident in Tubas.
|UN News – Settler Violence During Olive Harvest|
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirms that this year’s olive harvest has seen the highest rate of colonizer violence in the West Bank in five years.
|Colonizers Torch Vehicles in Burqa Amid Daily Attacks, Land Seizures|
These assaults violate international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits targeting civilians and destroying their means of sustenance under occupation.
The olive harvest is not merely agricultural—it is a cultural and economic lifeline. Its sabotage is a deliberate act of dispossession.
The attack on Burqa is part of a broader pattern of coordinated violence and land dispossession, which rights groups warn amounts to systematic ethnic cleansing under military and settler cover.
On Wednesday evening, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers stormed a Bedouin village in the al-Hathrawa area near Khan al-Ahmar, east of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank, on Wednesday evening.
Also Wednesday, Israeli colonizers cut down dozens of olive trees belonging to citizens in the Nablus and Hebron governorates, in the northern and southern parts of the occupied West Bank.
In addition, Israeli paramilitary colonizers set fire to two civilian vehicles during an assault on the town of Surif, northwest of Hebron.
On Wednesday, the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission, Israeli occupation forces and colonizers have carried out at least 259 documented assaults on Palestinian olive harvesters since early October.
These include 41 attacks by soldiers and 218 by colonizers, encompassing physical violence, abductions, movement restrictions, intimidation, and live fire. These ranged from physical assaults and abductions to movement restrictions, intimidation, and live fire.
The Commission also recorded 125 separate attacks on olive groves this season, including 46 cases of cutting, uprooting, or bulldozing trees—resulting in the destruction of at least 1,070 olive trees. The most affected governorates are Ramallah and al-Bireh, Nablus, and Hebron.
These coordinated assaults not only undermine a cornerstone of Palestinian rural livelihood but also function as a mechanism of displacement and land seizure, reinforcing the apartheid regime’s broader strategy of erasure and annexation.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
