Israel Settler Violence Escalates During West Bank Olive Harvest

The European Union has condemned attacks by Israeli settlers on EU diplomats and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, amid an unprecedented surge in settler violence during the Palestinian olive harvest.

In a statement on Sunday, the EU said: “We expect full accountability as well as effective measures to prevent continuing acts of violence and violent harassment against Palestinians, including during the ongoing olive harvest, and against journalists.” The EU also called on Israel to “fully comply with international humanitarian and human rights law and to end settlement expansion”.

Settler attacks during this year's olive harvest have already surpassed the total recorded for all of 2025. Critics argue that condemnation alone from the EU and its member states, without measures forcing Israel to account, will not deter settler violence — which they say is enabled by Israeli authorities.

Saturday's incident is the latest in weeks of escalating violence against local communities in the occupied West Bank, carried out by Israelis from illegal settlements and largely either protected or at least not prevented by Israeli forces.

A day earlier, Israeli settlers also attacked Palestinian olive pickers and a veteran photojournalist.

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Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the country's consul general for Palestinian affairs, along with French and Polish diplomats and a Catholic representative, were among those attacked.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called on the Israeli government to arrest the settlers who assaulted Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the town of Aulnoye-Aymeries. On X, he demanded that Israel “urgently end this criminal violence and guarantee the safety of civilians”.

The incident led Israeli police to open an investigation, while settler violence continued to disrupt the Palestinian harvest across the occupied territory.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration of President Donald Trump was “very troubled” by images of settlers attacking American photojournalist Heidi Levine, 64, a freelancer for The Washington Post, in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Rubio said he had not received an official report on the incident but that what he saw “did not look good”. He called on Israel to “crack down” on the violence and said President Trump did not want to see “tension” or “crisis” in the West Bank.

Palestinian political analyst Ahmed Najar told Al Jazeera that condemnation without consequences is not accountability. “Western governments continue to supply weapons, funding and diplomatic cover to Israel while treating settler attacks as the isolated acts of a few extremists. But this violence grows out of a wider system of occupation, settlement expansion and legal impunity,” he said.

Former EU representative to the West Bank and Gaza Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff voiced a similar view. He described the weak protests of European governments over Israeli settler violence as “pitiful” because they are not followed by concrete sanctions. He stressed this is especially shameful given that settler violence has gone on for years without punishment, and that at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on October 12, ministers still failed to decide on sanctioning violent settlers or the forces that enable them.

Saturday's events

On Saturday, Israeli settlers attacked the vehicles of French, Belgian and Polish diplomats near the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank.

According to witnesses and reports, at least seven masked settlers surrounded the cars, demanded identification, smashed the windows of a Belgian consulate vehicle and assaulted the French mayor.

Baudoux, 78, told Reuters he was “a bit stunned” after the incident. He said he wore his mayoral sash in blue, white and red — a clear symbol of France — to protect those around him, but that it was not enough and he was violently attacked. According to his account, the settlers knocked him to the ground, after which his group hurried back to their vehicles to leave.

He added: “I didn't think something like that could happen to me when I came here as a peace activist to attend a twinning ceremony — a friendship between two towns.” Nevertheless, he insisted the attack would not frighten him and said “we need to return to the olive groves because they mean so much to Palestinians”.

Former EU diplomat Burgsdorff told Al Jazeera that such attacks are not new, having witnessed “thugs attacking peaceful Palestinian farmers and citizens” during his visits to the occupied Palestinian territory between January 2020 and July 2023. On one occasion a crowd of settlers threw stones at his convoy while they were already inside their vehicles; unable to rely on protection from Israeli police or the army, they left the scene as quickly as possible.

Attacks on olive pickers

In recent weeks, Israeli settlers have stepped up violence against Palestinian olive pickers in the area.

On the same Saturday, before the attack on the diplomats, settlers injured six Palestinians while Israeli forces arrested farmers in violence across the West Bank. According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, the injured included four women and a child when settlers attacked residents of Ma'in village in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron.

In the town of Deir Ammar, west of Ramallah, Israeli forces opened fire on olive pickers, forcing them off their land, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency. Settlers also injured two Palestinians when they opened fire in the area.

In the village of Kafr Malek, northeast of Ramallah, mayor Najeh Rustum told Al Jazeera that settlers raided a farm at dawn and killed about 20 sheep.

Al Jazeera correspondent Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said settlers destroyed olive trees across the Beit Furik plain east of Nablus in the northern West Bank, while Israeli forces arrested the landowner and the olive pickers. In the village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, settlers under army protection fired live ammunition at farmers in the al-Hariq area to stop them harvesting, forcing them off the land. Settlers also smashed the car of international activist Jonathan Budlak in the village and threw stones at a farmer's vehicle.

On Friday, dozens of masked settlers attacked Palestinian farmers harvesting olives, throwing stones, using slingshots and burning trees.

The Friday and Saturday incidents followed the death of Ali Hassan Yasser al-Bazzari, 44, in an attack on Palestinian olive pickers near Burqa, northwest of Nablus, on October 7. Witnesses said settlers and Israeli soldiers attacked the harvesters.

Journalists documenting the violence have also been targeted. Veteran freelance photographer Levine was attacked near Abu Falah on Friday. Witnesses said she fell to the ground during the assault before being beaten. Levine was taken to a hospital northeast of Ramallah, later telling reporters that her attackers “just kept kicking me, probably about 50 times”. She was wearing a protective vest with “PRESS” on the front and back; her camera and phone were taken in the attack, according to The Washington Post.

On October 6, armed settlers struck AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, with a gun butt near Aqraba, south of Nablus. He was taken to hospital with injuries to his head and body, according to witnesses, relatives and colleagues.

Why does violence rise during the olive harvest?

Israeli settler violence has gone on for weeks and has increased during the olive harvest. Israeli rights group Yesh Din recorded 377 incidents of settler- and soldier-related violence in the two weeks to October 10.

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “so far this year, nearly 200 settler attacks linked to the olive harvest have caused casualties or property damage. This already surpasses the 185 incidents recorded in the entire 2025 season.”

Still, the attacks are not new. Every year, Israeli settlers and hardline groups exploit the olive harvest to assert control over valuable agricultural land, often preventing Palestinians from reaching olive groves, stealing crops or building illegal settlement outposts and roads on private Palestinian land.

The olive harvest is also a vital economic lifeline for an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank. Threatening, injuring or barring farmers from picking olives, along with uprooting or burning thousands of olive trees, causes severe financial damage and forces families off their land.

Analyst Najar told Al Jazeera: “The olive harvest is not just an agricultural season for Palestinians; it is an essential source of income and a powerful expression of their connection to the land. Settlers target this period because Palestinian families gather in open-air groves, often near settlements and outposts.” By attacking farmers, burning or uprooting trees and stealing crops, he said, they not only wreck a harvest but also make it increasingly dangerous for Palestinians to access and remain on their land.

Najar argued the violence also aims to intimidate international activists who accompany Palestinian farmers, stand with them against settler violence and document the abuses. “The goal is not only to dispossess Palestinians of their land, but to ensure that dispossession happens without witnesses,” he said.

According to Al Jazeera's Odeh, settlers are further emboldened this year because upcoming elections matter greatly to right-wing parties. She said they have even received a religious ruling stating that stealing the olive harvest is not only permitted but encouraged.

What does Israel say?

The Israeli army condemned Saturday's attack on the EU diplomats and said it had opened an investigation, insisting soldiers were not present at the incident.

For years, settler attacks have also occurred under the protection or passive stance of the Israeli army, which often declares Palestinian farming areas “closed military zones” or coordinates with settlers to restrict landowners' access.

Meanwhile, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to question reports of the attack on the Europeans, saying on X that it was an “allegation” requiring “compelling evidence”, even though it acknowledged that footage of the incident had been released.

Al Jazeera's Odeh noted that while the prime minister plays down the violence, Israeli opposition figures are criticising Netanyahu, arguing it undermines Israel's standing. She added that they pledge to protect illegal settlements while trying to curb settler violence.