Israeli Settler Violence Escalates: Journalist and Diplomats Attacked; Gaza Faces Food Crisis

With more than a month still left in the olive harvest, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says it has recorded more than 200 Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian farmers since September 1 — exceeding the 185 recorded during the entire 2025 harvest season. The attacks have left at least one Palestinian dead, more than 120 injured and over 2,500 olive trees damaged.

On Friday alone, the Anti-Settlement and Wall Committee recorded 34 attacks by Israelis that injured at least 19 people, with another 40 on Saturday. The incidents took place with encouragement from some extremist religious figures. Rabbi Dov Lior, spiritual adviser to the far-right Otzma Yehudit party of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, issued a ruling permitting settlers to pick olives from Palestinian groves on the grounds that "Jews are allowed to harvest olives even in areas far from Jewish settlements in order to publicly demonstrate ownership of the land."

In a settler chat group, one post declared: "An olive tree today is more important than an M16 rifle in the campaign to seize the land of Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank]." Sarit Michaeli, former international advocacy director at the Israeli rights group B'Tselem, said: "Settlers are stealing the Palestinian olive harvest on a scale I have not seen in 22 years of working on this issue."

On October 16, in Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, about 80 masked settlers armed with clubs attacked Palestinians picking olives. During the incident, Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, 63, fell and was beaten for more than 10 minutes. She suffered broken ribs, required hand surgery, and had her camera, phone and passport stolen. Village council member Abdel Jaber Obeid was later shot in the thigh by Israeli soldiers.

On Saturday, masked, club-wielding settlers attacked a visiting delegation that included Belgium's consul general, French and Polish diplomats and church representatives in Taybeh, east of Ramallah. A window of a Belgian consulate vehicle was smashed. The mayor of a French city, 78-year-old Bernard Baudoux, was kicked and beaten.

Responding to the incidents, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was "very concerned," while US Ambassador Mike Huckabee called the attack on Levine "a despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards." France demanded that the perpetrators be arrested, and the European Union said it expects "full accountability."

The Israeli military called the Taybeh attack "serious," and Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot described settler violence as "Jewish terrorism under the auspices of the Israeli government." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, however, offered only a qualified condemnation of the attack on Levine, saying questions remained about "who initiated the violence." After the Taybeh incident, the office again hedged: "The graver the allegation, the stronger the evidence must be."

On Monday, police and the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency launched "Operation Olive Leaf," arresting 10 Israelis in raids near Ofra and Shiloh in connection with the attacks on the journalist and foreign diplomats. No arrests or investigations were announced, however, over the dozens of other settler attacks on Palestinians over the past weekend alone.

Attacks across the West Bank

Beyond the high-profile incidents, masked settlers — often accompanied by soldiers — also targeted farmers, livestock, homes and land. The incidents included:

• Settlers beat two women in Beit Lid on Tuesday and seriously injured a US citizen, Haytham Tayseer, in Burqa on Thursday, leaving him with a severe head wound.
• Six people, including four women and a child, were injured in Ma'in, in Masafer Yatta, on Saturday, according to the Red Crescent.
• Settlers burned four vehicles in Turmus Aya, including a civil fire truck, and set fire to a mosque in Mikhmas, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
• Settlers stabbed about 20 sheep to death in Kafr Malek, according to Mayor Najeh Rustum.
• Bulldozers uprooted hundreds of olive trees in Kafr Malek, and settlers cut down 120 olive trees in Kisan, near Bethlehem, according to Wafa.

Gaza: Halting trade deepens hunger fears

In Gaza, an already dire humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly. On October 14, Israel announced it would not allow commercial goods into Gaza, citing a dispute between merchants and Hamas over a fee of 10,000 shekels ($3,220) per truck. Gaza's Government Media Office called this a "blatant disinformation campaign," saying the money was a voluntary contribution to a fund supporting widows and orphans.

By Sunday, prices had risen sharply: a tray of eggs from 35 shekels ($11.30) to 60-70 shekels ($18-21), and a bag of flour from 25-35 shekels ($7.50-10.50) to about 80 shekels ($24), according to residents. The increases came just as the World Food Programme announced it would cut the number of people it assists monthly in Gaza from 1.6 million to 1.1 million. Gaza's Health Ministry says 466 people have died of malnutrition since 2024, and 67 percent of the population faces severe or worse food insecurity by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to kill Palestinians in Gaza every day. As of October 19, Gaza's Health Ministry recorded 1,522 dead and 5,421 wounded since last year's "ceasefire" — including 27 killed in the past week, compared with 33 the week before and 38 the week before that. The overall death toll has reached 74,480 since October 7, 2023.

Among the victims were three children, including 14-year-old Muhammad Riyad Abu Hammad in Deir el-Balah — the Education Ministry said shrapnel pierced his schoolbag as he walked home from school on Saturday — and Misk Hazem al-Dalu and Tamer Shadi Subh, killed in the Maghazi camp and Beit Lahiya on Sunday. UNICEF says more than 340 children have been killed since the ceasefire.

Drone strikes over the past week killed Ahmad Raja al-Shaer and Basel Nabil Qeshta in al-Qarara; Reem Awad in a strike on an apartment in Gaza City; Mahmoud al-Madhoun and Ubaida Murtaja in Gaza City; Abdullah and Imad Jaber along with Sheikh Majid al-Sabbagh, director of a Quran school in Tuffah, on October 17; Amer al-Horani near the Jabalia clinic the same day; and police officer Abd al-Jawad Joudeh in Rafah.

Gunfire killed Saddam al-Za'anin in Jabalia, Hatem Abu Hasanein by quadcopter fire, 49-year-old Huda Abu Adwan in al-Mawasi and 28-year-old Wijdan Shurrab in eastern Khan Younis, according to Wafa and local activists. The Israeli military said some of those killed this week were Hamas members, but no such claims have been independently verified.

Israeli forces meanwhile pushed the "Yellow Line" deeper into Shujayea on Saturday, placing concrete blocks on al-Qa'qa Street. The line demarcates areas under Israeli control, which now cover about 65 percent of Gaza — far beyond last year's "ceasefire" agreement.