Palestinian health officials said a Palestinian man was killed and 16 others wounded in an attack by Israeli settlers backed by Israeli forces in the northern occupied West Bank.
The victim was identified as Ali Hassan Yasser al-Bazzari, 44, from Burqa, northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, al-Bazzari was killed in the attack on Palestinians harvesting olives on farmland near Burqa, west of Nablus, on Wednesday.
According to the Wafa news agency, citing local sources, a number of the wounded, including a woman, were taken to hospitals in Tulkarem and Nablus.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its teams treated five people at the scene, two of them wounded by gunfire and three beaten. The PRCS also accused Israeli forces of attacking ambulance crews trying to reach the wounded, and of detaining three medics and a volunteer.
Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Ramallah, said the incident took place amid a rise in attacks on Palestinians during the olive harvest season. She said people can now be endangered even when they simply go to their gardens to pick olives, not only because of Israeli restrictions on farmers but also because armed Israeli settlers continue to carry out attacks.
According to the correspondent, the attacks have upended a harvest season that is economically and socially important for Palestinian families. Normally in October, many Palestinians take time off work to go out into the fields to pick olives, as it is considered a festive season. However, the attacks have severely affected olive growing, with at least 45,000 trees destroyed across the occupied West Bank this year.
Also according to Wafa, Israeli forces and settlers attacked a number of Palestinians harvesting olives near Anata, in the central occupied West Bank.
