Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers in several villages in the occupied West Bank on Saturday as the olive harvest got under way, according to Palestinian local sources and reporting from Al Jazeera and BBC Arabic. Al Jazeera also reported that settlers and soldiers have blocked farmers from reaching their groves. The attacks were concentrated in villages around Nablus, a major Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, including Beita, Burin and Awarta-area communities such as Osrin.

In Osrin, south of Nablus, dozens of settlers reportedly attacked homes and farmers picking olives. Relatives said Ghassan Adili was seriously wounded after being beaten with sticks and stones, and that Hussam Adili, harvesting on land next to his house, suffered head and back fractures and remained in unstable condition in Nablus's Arab Hospital after surgery. His mother was also injured. Mubarak Adili, head of the village council, said the town has faced near-daily attacks for more than six months and sits between two settlements built on land belonging to Osrin and neighbouring villages. He said settlers had burned land and crops and cut down olive trees, and that families depend each year on the trees that remain.

In Beita, local sources reported settlers firing live ammunition and detaining Palestinians and foreign activists in the Qamas and Jabal al-Arma areas. Journalist Wahaj Bani Mufleh said he and colleagues, accompanying families to report on the harvest, sheltered in a house after gunfire and the approach of settlers. He said the Israeli army then entered the area in a civilian car driven by a settler. The Palestinian health ministry said on Friday that 19-year-old Baha al-Natsheh was killed by settler gunfire in Kobar, north of Ramallah, bringing to 30 the number of Palestinians killed by settlers this year, a toll Palestinian officials call unprecedented since 2022.

The harvest matters far beyond the trees themselves. Al Jazeera notes that more than 80,000 Palestinian families rely on olives for income. The Palestinian Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission says farmers' hardship will be worse than in previous years, warning that large quantities of olives could be lost and that growers may be denied safe access to their land. It recorded 647 settler attacks across the West Bank last month.

The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967, and settlements there are considered illegal under international law by most countries, a position Israel disputes. The sources do not include an Israeli response to the latest reports.