Urgent action needed to protect Palestinian olive harvest

UN Human Rights - Palestine calls on all States and donors to take urgent action, beyond condemnations and statements, to press for the protection of Palestinian communities as the olive harvest season gets off to an ominous start.

At least 160 Israeli settler attacks related to the olive harvest have been recorded in the occupied West Bank in the first two weeks of October, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), often under the protection or with the participation of Israeli forces. Settlers continued the attacks over the past few days, including assaulting an international journalist while covering the harvest, and attacking European diplomatic representatives on a visit to a Palestinian community shortly after the start of the harvest season. Settlers attacking the olive harvest have used live ammunition and arson, destroyed olive trees and groves including ancient trees, damaged Palestinian property, and stolen harvested olives and agricultural equipment.

In addition to the attacks by Israeli forces and settlers, thousands of Palestinian farmers are unable to access their olive trees for the harvest due to severe Israeli movement restrictions that dramatically worsened over the past three years. In the meantime, illegally present settlers are allowed to access Palestinians’ lands and harvest their crops.

“Palestinians often say that olive trees are symbolic of their existence as a group and their connection to the land. Attacks on the olive harvest can’t be separated from the pervasive Israeli assault on Palestinians’ existence as a group connected to this land,” said Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights – OPT. “This is yet another tool of displacement and dispossession, adding to the suffering of communities whose rights are under attack on a daily basis.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture estimates the losses of the Palestinian olive sector at USD 157 million since October 2023 in the West Bank in Gaza. The Ministry said 90% of Gaza’s two million olive trees have been destroyed since October 2023. In the West Bank, 286,000 olive trees have been damaged through the end of September 2026 including 25,000 trees in 2023, 70,000 trees in 2024, 91,000 trees in 2025, and 100,000 trees in 2026 even before the start of this year’s olive harvest season.

Sunghay reiterated the call to action issued ahead of the season by the Protection Cluster led by UN Human Rights – Palestine — a network of over 100 international and national organizations that focuses on assessing and responding to the protection risks and needs of the most vulnerable Palestinians. The Protection Cluster urged member states to increase international and diplomatic field presence and engagement in high-risk communities, particularly during critical harvesting periods, complementing existing protective presence arrangements and focusing attention on locations facing recurrent violence and access restrictions.
Member states must exercise pressure on Israel to:

• Ensure Palestinians’ safe, timely, and meaningful access to their agricultural land.
• Protect Palestinian farmers from violence, intimidation, and expulsion.
• Protect agricultural land, crops, and productive assets.
• Ensure access for humanitarian and emergency responders.
• Strengthen accountability and provide legal remedies.
• End settlement expansion and related measures that contribute to violence, dispossession, and displacement.

The Protection Cluster also called upon donors to provide timely, adequate, and flexible funding for protective presence, community-based protection, emergency preparedness, legal assistance and food security and livelihoods interventions, enabling partners to respond rapidly as access conditions and needs change.

Read the joint Protection Cluster and Food Security Sector snapshot report to learn more about the protection risks facing olive harvest farmers, the hotspots of prioritized, at-risk areas related to the harvest season, and the recommendations of Palestinian communities towards more safety: Protection And Food Security and Livelihoods | West Bank Olive Harvest 2026 | Preparatory Workshop Outcomes - occupied Palestinian territory | ReliefWeb

Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian boys,16-year-old Khalil Shihadeh and 17-year-old Omar Al Nassaan, in Al Mughayyir during a reported settler attack. Israeli forces and settlers have now killed 9 Palestinians in the town since December 2024, including 5 boys.  

Surrounded by 8 settler outposts, Al Mughayyir has been a target for incessant settler and state violence to force Palestinian residents to leave. This included more than 50 settler attacks in 2026 alone, according to OCHA, with an average of 7 attacks per month, with the acquiescence, support, and participation of Israeli forces. 

While outposts expand around Al Mughayyir, settler and state violence has already purged entire surrounding communities of Palestinians, including the villages of Ein ar Rashash, Ras al Tin, and Ein Samya. 

Israel must meet its international law obligation to end its unlawful presence and evacuate all settlers from the occupied West Bank.

Settler encroachments and attacks on Palestinian homes are beyond a boiling point

Israeli authorities must immediately remove settlers who are violently displacing thousands of Palestinians, unlawfully grabbing Palestinian land and expanding settlements.

Since the establishment of an Israeli settler outpost near Qusra, a Palestinian town located in Nablus Governorate in Area B of the occupied West Bank in November 2025, Israeli settlers have reportedly taken control of the area west of the town, located in Area B. During this time, Palestinians living in Qusra have endured increasingly frequent attacks by settlers, including home invasions, physical assaults, acts of vandalism, theft and arson, including against a local mosque.

In an emblematic case of settler violence, in July, Israeli settlers from an outpost located in the Ras al Ein area of Qusra cut the water and electricity supply to three Palestinian homes located nearby. Then, on 9 August, the settlers closed all the gates and entrances leading to these Palestinian homes and set up a tent between the houses, refusing to allow anyone to enter or leave the area. This has resulted in three Palestinian households, comprising some 15 people including at least two children, being trapped inside their homes in a state of terror, unable to attend to their basic needs and without access to water or electricity.

The families reported that they requested Israeli security forces present at the site to intervene, but to no avail. Instead, Israeli security forces seem to have blocked medics, solidarity activists and journalists from reaching the families. In a sign that could indicate collusion between the ISF and settlers, video footage shows soldiers praying together with settlers at the location. On 12 August, soldiers eventually dismantled the settlers’ tent without removing the settlers who, as of 13 August, are still surrounding the homes.

These criminal actions by the settlers, supported or acquiesced to by Israel, the Occupying Power, are making life unbearable for these Palestinian families, and are clearly aimed at forcing them to leave their homes and land. Time is running out for these three families before they are forcibly displaced.

The International Court of Justice is clear that all Israeli settlements are illegal and that Israel is obligated to cease all settlement activities, evacuate all settlers, including those terrorizing Qusra and Jalud, and bring to an end its unlawful presence in the West Bank. In the meantime, Israel must comply with its obligations under the laws of occupation to ensure the security of the local Palestinian population, which includes preventing attacks by Israeli settlers unlawfully present in the occupied West Bank, investigating such attacks and ensuring accountability of those found responsible for conducting, supporting or tolerating these attacks, including through the imposition of sentences commensurate to the abuses and violations.

Occupied Palestinian territory: UN report on large-scale violations, including atrocity crimes

Child and man killed near school in Al Mughayyir as settler militarization intensifies

UN Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OHCHR OPT) condemns the killing of 14-year-old Aws Hamdi Naasan and 35-year-old Jihad Abu Naiem by Israeli settlers on 21 April in Al Mughayyir village in the occupied West Bank. It also condemns the killing of 25-year-old Odeh Awawdeh in a separate settler attack in Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah. The killings continue a growing pattern of unchecked violence by a settler movement that is militarized and shielded by the state.

In Deir Dibwan, settlers entered the village and clashed with residents with an armed settler shooting and killing 25-year-old Odeh Awawdeh. Israeli security forces raided the town and closed its entrances during the incident, detaining 30 Palestinian men who were later released. According to Israeli media reports, Israeli security forces also held several settlers for questioning following the incident.

Settlers also attacked Al Mughayyir around noon on Tuesday and opened fire towards the boys’ school west of the village. Residents of Al Mughayyir circulated a video showing the shooting of the child while sheltering with others just outside his school as gunshots are heard from a distance. Eyewitnesses told OHCHR OPT that one of two armed settlers in partial uniform was shooting at the school, with four masked members of Israeli security forces in full uniform present at the scene.

The Israeli military issued a statement claiming that the incident occurred when a car carrying “civilians including a reservist soldier” stopped when stones were allegedly hurled. The statement said the reservist exited the vehicle and shot at suspects. According to Israeli media, the reservist was later suspended and an investigation was initiated.

At least nine Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of 2026 by settlers later identified by the Israeli military as reservist soldiers.

This convergence of settler and soldier is the result of measures taken by the Israeli authorities to intensify the militarization of the settler movement since 7 October 2023, including the enlistment and arming of thousands of settlers as reservists in regional battalions known as Hagmar. These measures also include arming and empowering settlements’ emergency response squads known as Kitat Konenut, and the relaxation of gun licensing requirements for Israelis, including settlers.

Across the West Bank, Palestinians are reporting attacks by men who are clearly known to them as settlers, but who are dressed in full or partial military uniform and are often carrying state-issued assault rifles and military gear. Palestinian survivors of such attacks describe their attackers as “settlers in uniform.”

Settler attacks on Palestinian communities are often carried out with the active support and participation of uniformed Israeli security forces, even when there is no ambiguity that the perpetrators are settlers.

Since 7 October 2023, 1,088 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including 238 children. This includes 34 by settlers, 1,040 by Israeli security forces, and 14 Palestinians whose killings cannot be definitively attributed because Israeli security forces and settlers were attacking and shooting together.

No Israeli soldier has served a single day in prison for killing a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank since at least 2017. The only recorded conviction was in 2020 for which the sentence was three months of military service and three months of suspended jail time.

Settlers’ impunity is equally systematic. According to the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, 93.6% of all investigations of settler violence in the occupied West Bank between 2005 and 2025 were closed without indictments, and only 3% led to partial or full convictions with lenient sentences.

“Israeli policies have erased whatever line that ever existed between settler and state violence. And the systematic impunity for killing Palestinians is the backbone of this non-stop horror,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of OHCHR OPT. “The international community must insist on meaningful accountability for the perpetrators of all unlawful killings in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to stop the bloodshed.”

Briefing on UN Human Rights High Commissioner's report on Israeli settlements Remarks by Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights - Palestine

Since the end of the period covered by this report, the pace of the concerted efforts by the Israeli government to seize as much Palestinian land as possible, with as few Palestinians in it as possible, is only becoming more relentless. To this end, Palestinians are pushed out of their homes and off their lands every day, to make room for more expansion of illegal settlements.

Israeli senior officials’ statements point to a policy to thwart Palestinian statehood and to do maximum, irreversible damage to Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

Today, I will brief you on just a few trends that continued to intensify after the period covered by the report.

First, an enabling policy and legislative environment continues to facilitate settlement expansion. In February 2026, the Israeli cabinet adopted decisions that will further extend Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, allow more Israeli land seizures, and allow settlers to purchase land from Palestinians in an environment where such transactions cannot be considered voluntary.

Second, Palestinians live with even more violence, restrictions and discrimination than they did just four months ago at the end of the reporting period.

Since the beginning of 2026, Israeli settlers have killed seven Palestinians across the West Bank — a significantly increased rate compared to the eight Palestinians killed by settlers in all of 2025.

Since the start of the conflict in the region on 28 February, the situation has become worse. Israeli security forces have continued to kill Palestinians with impunity, including a killing of a 17-year-old this morning, and an incident last Sunday when they opened fire on a car in Tubas and killed two parents with their two sons aged five and six.

In the same timeframe, Israeli security forces have also launched daily raids across the West Bank, seized dozens of Palestinian homes for several hours or several days to use as interrogation centres, and detained at least 200 Palestinians including for social media posts labelled as “incitement” or “glorification of the enemy”.

Israeli authorities have tightened the already heavy, discriminatory closures and movement restrictions across the West Bank, tearing communities apart and impeding Palestinians’ access to healthcare, livelihoods, education, and basic services.

Yet, Israeli settlers are roaming free with complete impunity, often armed, forcing Palestinian family after Palestinian family off their lands. As a result, at least nine Palestinian communities have been fully or partially displaced since 28 February, mostly in the northern Jordan Valley.

Over the weekend, we received harrowing accounts from the residents of one of the last standing communities there, Khirbet Humsa. According to our monitoring, dozens of settlers attacked the community and assaulted Palestinian men and women in front of their children, stole livestock, and apparently sexually assaulted a young man in a horrifying way.

This violence is clearing Palestinians from the area while a new separation barrier is being constructed that will close this part of the northern Jordan Valley to Palestinians entirely.

Third, settlement expansion is also accelerating.

Last December, Israeli authorities approved 19 new settlements. This includes settlements in the northern West Bank where, last year, Israeli security forces had expelled at least 32,000 Palestinians who remain displaced to this day.

In January 2026, Israeli authorities issued tenders for the construction of thousands of settlement units in the so-called E1 area. This expansion will likely sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and disrupt territorial continuity in the West Bank between north and south.

Before I close, I want to stress that Palestinians in Gaza are also still living under conditions of precarity and dehumanization, even five months after the ceasefire.

671 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military operations since this ceasefire, both in the vicinity of Israeli forces’ deployment lines, and far away in homes, tents, and on the streets. Thousands remain missing, buried under rubble or forcibly disappeared. The entry and flow of humanitarian aid is not reliable as quantities change, many essential goods are still blocked, and crossings are not dependably open.

The events of the past two and a half years in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have not only caused one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our lifetimes but also presented a severe human rights crisis, with the risk of further reverberations across the region and the world. This is a time to strengthen respect for human rights and humanitarian law. Ending the disturbing trends of violations, occupation and impunity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a good place to start.

Settlers’ rampages targeting Palestinians and their property are intensifying in the occupied West Bank unchecked, unabated, and with complete impunity. 
Settlers shot and killed 19-year-old-Nasrallah Abu Siam on the outskirts of Mikhmas outside of Jerusalem on 18 February. No arrests were made despite widely circulating video evidence identifying perpetrators. 
Since 17 February, at least 39 Palestinian families were forced out of their homes by settlers including:

The last 10 families in Al Burj area, northern Jordan Valley, thus completing the clearing of Al Burj community of all Palestinian residents.

Four families from Ein Siniya village, continuing the alarming increase of settler activity and forced displacement in Area B.

Thirteen families from Al Khalayil area in Al Mughayyir village, Ramallah, including from Area B.

Twelve refugee families from Rammun village, Ramallah.

Occupation must end. Settlement expansion must stop. Settlers must be removed from the West Bank.