Palestinian Farmers Exposed to Tear Gas and Settler Attacks During West Bank Olive Harvest

Several Palestinians required medical treatment for tear gas inhalation on Saturday after Israeli forces fired canisters at farmers and blocked access to their lands in the village of Salem, east of Nablus. Ambulance crews responded to multiple cases of breathing difficulties caused by exposure to the gas.

In separate incidents across the Nablus area, settlers targeted olive harvesters east of Burin, assaulting individuals, seizing crops and equipment, and firing live ammunition. In Beit Furik, also east of Nablus, settlers cut down and destroyed dozens of olive trees in the Al-Sahl area. The attacks coincided with an Israeli military raid in the eastern part of the town, during which forces assaulted olive harvesters and detained several families.

Beit Furik Mayor Yousef Hannani said several residents sustained fractures and bruises after being chased by Israeli forces. One woman lost consciousness, and the injured were transported to the town’s medical center.

Further attacks were reported in Osarin, Lubban Al-Sharqiya, and Asira Al-Qibliya, south of Nablus, where settlers forced Palestinian harvesters to abandon their lands. For a third consecutive day, settlers also targeted olive pickers in the Wadi Abwein area and surrounding eastern zones, stealing crops and harvesting tools and driving farmers from their property.

On Saturday, Israeli forces detained a Palestinian man identified as Omar Qasem Fashafsheh of Jaba’, south of Jenin, while he was harvesting olives near a newly established illegal settlement outpost between Jaba’ and Sanur. The detention occurred in an area where settlers had begun earthworks days earlier at the site of the former Sanur military camp, which the Israeli army vacated in 2005.

Escalating settler activity has heightened Palestinian concerns over the safety of farmland and the continuation of the annual olive harvest.

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