The wall and settlements: 23 attacks and violations affecting the olive season in 7 governorates

Ramallah - Ofoq News - The Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee documented 23 incidents of attacks and violations carried out by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers against farmers, their lands, crops, and their supporters, today, Wednesday, between six in the morning and six in the evening.

The attacks were divided into 10 in Nablus Governorate, 6 in Ramallah and Al-Bireh, 2 incidents in Salfit and Hebron, and 1 incident in each of Qalqilya, Jenin, and Bethlehem.

The incidents included shooting, beatings, arrests, preventing olive picking, stealing crops and equipment, and burning and leveling lands.

The Commission said in its daily report that the attacks included the injury of a farmer with live bullets in the hand while picking olives in Osrin, Nablus Governorate, and the injury of another farmer with severe suffocation as a result of being sprayed with pepper gas in Wadi Abbas in the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan in Salfit Governorate.

In Nahalin, Bethlehem Governorate, the occupation forces attacked farmers and activists in the Al-Habla area, arrested the elderly Fahima Issa Ghayada and a number of activists, including the Democratic candidate for US Congress, Brad Lander, and seized the harvested olives.

The Commission also recorded the arrest of a Russian solidarity activist while participating in the olive harvest in Taybeh, and another young man during the harvest in Kafr al-Dik.

In Nablus Governorate, settlers burned lands in Burqa, while occupation vehicles bulldozed lands planted with olive trees in the Al-Rajmanat area in the town of Madama.

The settlers attacked the olive pickers near the Jalud School and fired bullets at them, before the occupation forces stormed the area and beat the farmers.

In Beit Furik, the olive crop was thrown on the ground and seized by force of arms. Families were forced to evacuate the fields, while the theft of fruits and equipment affected the towns of Qaryut, Odla, and Tal, and farmers from the Wadi Abwein region in Al-Lubban Al-Sharqiya were forced to leave their lands.

The occupation army also pursued farmers in the Giza area of ​​Beita, prevented them from picking olives, and fired bullets at them.

In Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate, farmers were prevented from accessing their lands in the Al-Harayeq area in the town of Deir Jarir, and farmers, journalists, and cadres from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission were forced to leave the lands in Turmus Aya, under the pretext of declaring it a closed military zone.

Landowners were also prevented from picking olives in Al-Mughayir, while settlers brought their livestock into lands planted with olive trees in Barqa and Kafr Malek.

In Hebron Governorate, armed settlers fired bullets at olive pickers in Birin, while farmers and activists were prevented from harvesting in Idhna.

In Qalqilya Governorate, olive trees were cut down in Farata, while farmers from Deir Abu Daif, east of Jenin, were forced to leave their lands, despite having obtained prior coordination and approval to access them.

The Commission confirmed that today's events reveal the complementarity of direct attacks with military closures, arrests, and seizures of crops, which turns access to and work on the land into a daily confrontation imposed on farmers.

She stressed that forcing landowners to leave them and targeting activists and journalists undermines the chances of protecting the olive season and documenting the attacks, and calls for effective action to ensure farmers’ safe and continuous access to their lands, and to hold those responsible for these violations accountable.