NABLUS, Tuesday, October 26, 2021 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers today assaulted staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) while they were in Burin village, south of Nablus city, on a fact-finding mission injuring three of them, according to a local source.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli colonial settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said that settlers used pepper spray to attack the ICRC staff who were visiting the village causing painful burns of the face and hands to three of the staff members.

The ICRC staff were paying an inspection visit to the West Bank village to check on settler attacks against Palestinian farmers who were harvesting their olive crops.

With more than 12 million olive trees planted across 45% of the West Bank’s agricultural land, the olive harvest constitutes one of the biggest sources of economic sustainability for thousands of Palestinian families.

According to UN OCHA, the olive oil industry supports the livelihoods of more than 100,000 families and accounts for a quarter of the gross agricultural income of the occupied territories.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

Over 700,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.

K.F./M.K.