Tuesday, November 28, 2025 – The Head of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC), Minister Moayyad Shaaban, announced that Israeli occupation forces and settlers have carried out a total of 259 attacks against Palestinian olive pickers since the beginning of the harvest season in the first week of October.
Shaaban stated that CWRC field teams documented 41 attacks committed by the Israeli army and 218 attacks by settlers. These assaults included severe physical violence, arrests, restrictions on movement, denial of access, intimidation and terror in all forms — including live fire, as occurred in Tubas Governorate.
The highest number of attacks was recorded in Ramallah Governorate (83 cases), followed by Nablus (69) and Hebron (34). Shaaban added that 63 incidents involved restrictions on movement and intimidation of olive pickers, while 44 cases included direct assaults and beatings against farmers.
He explained that this year’s olive harvest season — coinciding with the ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people — is among the most difficult and dangerous in decades, as the Israeli army and settlers exploit wartime conditions to commit violations reinforced by policies and legislations that promote settler violence and expand their impunity. These include the closure of governorates, the arming of settler militias, and, most dangerously, the exemption of settlers from accountability and prosecution.
Shaaban also reported that 125 attacks targeted olive-planted lands this season, including 46 incidents of tree cutting, uprooting, and land leveling, resulting in the destruction of approximately 1,070 olive trees.
According to Shaaban, the escalating trend of attacks documented by CWRC monitoring teams over the past seasons reflects a deliberate and systematic policy aimed at terrorizing Palestinian farmers and sabotaging the olive harvest. Recorded assaults increased from 136 in 2022, to 333 in 2023, and 407 in 2024, reaching 259 so far this year, clearly demonstrating the ongoing targeting of Palestinian farmers and their livelihoods.
Shaaban called on the international community to move beyond rhetoric and adopt concrete actions to protect the Palestinian people and their national resources in the face of what he described as “state-sponsored terrorism and the official protection granted to settler militias.”