BETHLEHEM, October 24, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces assaulted Palestinian farmers and prevented them from reaching their lands to harvest olives in the town of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem, injuring several people, according to local sources.

The sources said that Israeli troops blocked farmers from accessing their lands in the Ein al-Balad area, which lies close to the illegal settlement of Beitar Illit, built on village land. Soldiers fired stun grenades and tear gas at the farmers, causing several cases of suffocation due to gas inhalation.

The same sources added that the soldiers assaulted two elderly residents — Ahmad Shakarneh, 60, and Jamila Badr Shakarneh, in her seventies — after briefly detaining them, before forcing them toward the fence surrounding the nearby settlement.

These incidents have become frequent during the olive harvest season across the West Bank, as Israeli forces and colonists restrict Palestinian farmers’ access to their lands near settlements and often use force to drive them away.

M.N