Israeli soldiers maintained positions near olive groves in the occupied West Bank village of al-Mughayyir on Thursday as Palestinian families worked to gather their crops during the limited window permitted for harvest. Video footage captured troops deploying tear gas near the pickers, with smoke drifting through the trees as a young boy tossed a canister away.
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Home to roughly 3,000 residents, the village sits northeast of Ramallah and encompasses approximately 4,300 hectares of land, yet locals report they can access barely 100 hectares. Reaching their groves requires prior Israeli military authorization, with entry limited to a handful of days and constrained by age restrictions and equipment bans. Villagers contend such brief visits are insufficient to maintain their trees, which demand year-round cultivation.
Al-Mughayyir has endured escalating pressure from nearby Israeli settler outposts. Six residents have been killed in 2026, its eastern entrance has been blocked by the military for over two years, and approximately 12,000 olive trees were uprooted from its eastern plain in 2025.
Throughout the West Bank, the UN has documented 377 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage since September, the highest tally since record-keeping began in 2006. The violence has left one Palestinian dead, more than 200 injured, and 3,850 trees damaged.
The olive harvest serves as a critical income source for an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families. The majority of the international community regards Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as illegal under international law.
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