Illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers launched coordinated assaults Saturday against Palestinian olive harvesters in several areas of the occupied West Bank, escalating a pattern of seasonal violence that intensifies each year during the olive harvest.
In Salfit, in central West Bank, colonizers from a hilltop illegal outpost between az-Zawiya and Rafat assaulted farmer Sadeq Yousef Abu Nab’a, his elderly mother Hamda Abu Nab’a, and over twenty relatives.
The colonizers assaulted the Palestinians and fired live rounds at them, in addition to causing damage to their cars, before forcing them to leave their orchards.
Similar attacks were reported in Burqa, north of Ramallah, where colonizers opened fire on harvesters, forced them to flee, and seized their equipment.
In the Nablus district, in the northern West Bank, colonizers, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, targeted olive pickers in Jurish and Aqraba, blocking access to groves and halting the harvest.
Just one day earlier, colonizers invaded olive groves in Beita, injuring nearly 50 Palestinians through gunfire, beatings, and tear gas. At least 15 vehicles were burned during the assault.
These attacks are part of a long-standing campaign to dispossess Palestinian farmers, who face routine violence and obstruction during the olive harvest. The result is severe financial loss and deepening hardship under occupation.
On Friday evening, Israeli colonizers carried out numerous assaults across multiple areas of the occupied West Bank, targeting Palestinian civilians and property in the Northern Plains region and Tubas in northeastern region of the West Bank.
On Friday morning, Israeli colonizers attacked Palestinian farmers harvesting olives in Beita, south of Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, before Israeli soldiers fired gas bombs at the famers, and assaulted some of them, causing several injuries.
On Friday night, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian young man, Mohammad Adnan Yousef Salama, 25, and wounded a child near the Cinema Roundabout in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Since October 7, 2023, colonizers have carried out 7,154 documented attacks against Palestinians and their property, resulting in the killing of 34 civilians and the forced displacement of 33 Bedouin communities.
These communities, comprising 455 families and 2,853 individuals, have been uprooted from their homes and relocated under duress, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
The ongoing violence has deepened fear and instability across the region, particularly among vulnerable populations. Local officials and rights groups continue to call for international protection and accountability.
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.
