Palestinians Open Olive Harvest Amid Violence and Tightened Restrictions

Before the olive-picking season officially begins, Palestinians sought early access to olive groves over the past week — and so did Israeli settlers. Across the occupied West Bank, harvesters were beaten, trees burned, crops and tools stolen, and Israeli soldiers sealed off landowners' property. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israeli airstrikes continued despite a ceasefire that has now lasted a year, as the territory's health and humanitarian systems further collapse with winter approaching.

A harvest under siege

The week's violence signalled a bloody olive season ahead in the West Bank. On 3 October, at Jabal Qamas between the towns of Osarin and Beita, south of Nablus, settlers from the illegal Mevaser Shalom outpost attacked a family harvesting. According to Israeli activist Jonathan Pollack and Arabic-language media reports, the attack left a man named Hussam Adily in critical condition, while his brother and mother were wounded. Settlers later entered Osarin, ransacked a home and smashed cars. The Israeli military opened an investigation but said the attackers had fled before soldiers arrived, according to The Times of Israel.

Similar attacks on Palestinian olive pickers occurred across the northern and central West Bank, including the villages of Rantis, Sebastia, Beit Imrin, Deir Sharaf, Aqraba, az-Zawiya, Ramin and Arrabuna. Farmers were sprayed with tear gas, run over, or beaten with batons and fists, with some hospitalised, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa and local field reports.

At Jabal al-Arma in Beita, Israeli settlers opened fire on olive pickers and Israeli forces fired tear gas directly at them.

Alongside the attacks came theft: settlers took picked olives, ladders and tarpaulins in Sinjil — where thefts have occurred almost daily for more than a week, according to resident Ayed Jafry — as well as in Rafat, Kafr Ra'i, Faqqua and other places, according to Wafa.

Trees were also targeted. Near Abu Dis, settlers burned about 55 olive trees along with a family's freshly picked harvest, according to Wafa. Elsewhere, settlers drove livestock through Palestinian-owned olive groves, destroying crops in the villages of Burqa, al-Mughayyir and Beit Duqqu, according to field reports.

Where settlers did not block the harvest, Israeli soldiers often did. Israeli forces drove farmers off their land in Deir Istiya, Farkha, Haris, az-Zawiya and Silwan, confiscating ID cards and in some cases tools, according to Wafa.

In Beita, the Israeli military halted a harvest after settlers appeared. According to Haaretz, it was the fourth such stoppage that weekend, in an area outside the military's authority. Soldiers used guns to force international volunteers accompanying the Palestinians to leave and attacked journalists reporting on the incident.

Beyond the olive groves, two Palestinians were shot dead in separate incidents involving settlers and Israeli forces within a single day. Mashhour Yassin, 51, was shot dead on 1 October when settlers stormed homes in Yasouf, east of Salfit. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said soldiers took the keys to the ambulance carrying him and threw them away, delaying his evacuation.

Bahaa al-Natsheh, 19, was shot dead the following day near an illegal outpost outside Kobar, according to Wafa and other media reports. Israeli authorities are still holding his body and have not returned it to his family.

Meanwhile, at a checkpoint east of Tulkarem, a 45-year-old Palestinian man died of heart failure while in detention, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Israeli courts push back

After weeks of increasingly heated election campaigning, Israeli institutions moved this week to restrain some of the governing coalition's ambitions ahead of the 27 October vote.

The Supreme Court unanimously restored the Arab-majority political slates — the United Arab List and the Joint List — to the ballot after the election committee voted to ban them. The court also voted 7-2 to restore far-left lawmaker Ofer Cassif. However, Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of Balad, a component party of the Joint List, withdrew his candidacy under pressure from the judges.

The election committee chairman separately fined National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for using his access to a Hamas prisoner in a campaign video, according to Israeli media.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said this week that Israeli politicians had "not done everything" possible to curb settler attacks — remarks made after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed a major settler attack on Jalud as the work of a "small minority" of rioters, according to The Times of Israel.

Haaretz reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump is considering sanctioning Israeli military units and blacklisting some officers over the attacks, although such measures are said to have been postponed until after both Israel's October election and the US midterms in November.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom confirmed it has suspended or refused more than 80 arms export licences to Israel since 2024, but continues to supply components for the international F-35 programme, a global defence partnership led by Lockheed Martin. Israel says Britain must close its consulate in occupied East Jerusalem before 8 October.

Gaza: Killings continue under 'ceasefire'

In Gaza, daily Israeli airstrikes continued despite a "ceasefire" that has now lasted a year. The death toll recorded by Gaza's Health Ministry since the nominal ceasefire rose from 1,422 on 29 September to 1,460 on 5 October. That brings the total death toll since October 2023 to 74,243, after 181 previously unverified deaths were added this week.

Five people, including a mother and daughter from Gaza's small Christian community, were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit the al-Asala building in Gaza City on 3 October, an attack Israeli media said targeted a Hamas official.

Six people were killed when a drone struck a passenger vehicle in Tal al-Hawa on 30 September, including Ammar al-Sharafi, brother of Al Jazeera correspondent Momin Alshrafi. One man was killed when his tent in al-Mawasi was attacked on 1 October.

On 4 October, a six-year-old girl died after reportedly being shot by Israeli forces in Deir el-Balah, according to Wafa. A Palestinian journalist, Muhammad al-Najjar, was killed on 30 September, becoming the 263rd reporter killed since Israel's war began, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

Israel also continued destroying damaged buildings in eastern Gaza City. Satellite analysis shows the number of damaged structures across Gaza at around 200,000.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians attended a mass funeral for 105 people found in the rubble of several buildings flattened in October 2023.