RAMALLAH, October 23, 2026 (WAFA) – The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) documented 21 attacks by Israeli occupation forces and colonists against Palestinian farmers across six governorates on Friday, between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
The CWRC said that the attacks included injuries to farmers, shootings, burning and cutting down of olive trees, theft of crops, and denying farmers access to their lands or forcing them to leave at gunpoint.
In Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, CWRC said that colonists burned and cut down dozens of olive trees in the al-Qibla area of the village of Burqa. Civil Defense crews could not access the area due to occupation measures and colonists.
Colonists attacked olive harvesters in Sinjil, Turmus Ayya and Marj Si'a, broke branches of trees, stole olives from Palestinian-owned lands in Silwad, and released their livestock into olive-planted lands in Kafr Malik.
In Nablus Governorate, colonists hurled stones at olive harvesters in the Burin town, injuring three farmers, including a 17-year-old boy, in the head, while others suffered from tear gas inhalation. The casualties were transferred to hospitals.
Colonists fired live ammunition to force farmers to leave their lands in Osarin, at a time when the occupation forces unleashed barrages of tear gas canisters, setting several olive trees on fire in Salem and Beit Furik towns.
The villages of Luban ash-Sharqiya, Qaryut, Asira ash-Shamaliya and Jamma'in witnessed attacks aimed at preventing the olive harvest and forcing farmers to leave their lands. Meanwhile, colonists, under military protection, stole farmers’ olive harvest from lands between Talfit and Jalud.
In Bethlehem Governorate, occupation forces detained members of the al-Qassas family on their land adjacent to the encroaching Israeli colony of Eli'azar and forced them to leave at gunpoint, threatening to arrest them if they returned to harvest olives.
The occupation forces also forced farmers and foreign solidarity activists to leave Wadi Abu Nujeim, while colonists released their livestock into lands in the village of al-Maniya, damaging several olive trees.
In Salfit Governorate, colonists, under military protection, pursued olive harvesters and foreign solidarity activists in the Wadi Yasuf area and threatened them in an attempt to force them to leave their lands.
In Jenin Governorate, the occupation forces closed the iron gates leading to eastern villages, preventing farmers in Barta'a from reaching their lands isolated behind the apartheid separation wall.
In Qalqilya Governorate, Israeli occupation forces expelled farmers from their olive groves and detained olive harvesters in the al-Jabal area of the town of Kafr Qaddum. They also forced farmers in the village of Immatin to leave their lands and prevented them from completing the olive harvest.
The CWRC said that escalating attacks on the olive harvest season were no longer limited to disrupting harvesting activities, but had come to directly target Palestinians' ability to remain on and cultivate their lands through a systematic pattern of violence, military intimidation, crop theft, tree destruction, and restrictions on access to agricultural land, all an integral part of Israel’s systematic policy of forced expulsion and settler-colonialism.
The CWRC stressed that the coordination between colonist attacks and the intervention of Israeli occupation forces to protect the assailants or prevent farmers from accessing their lands demonstrated that these practices were not isolated incidents, but interconnected tools for seizing land and undermining the foundations of Palestinian agricultural life.
It warned that continued attacks without accountability risked turning temporary restrictions on the olive harvest into the long-term displacement of farmers from their lands.
It called on the international community to take concrete measures to halt the attacks and ensure protection for Palestinian farmers.
K.F.
