World
Settler Attacks on Farmers, Journalists and Diplomats Intensify Amid Gaza Trade Halt
With more than a month of the olive‑harvest season remaining, United Nations deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Friday that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had recorded over 200 Israeli attacks on Palestinian farmers since September 1, surpassing the 185 attacks documented for the entire 2025 harvest season. The attacks have killed one Palestinian, injured more than 120 people and damaged more than 2,500 olive trees.
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission logged 34 Israeli attacks on Friday that injured at least 19 people, and another 40 attacks on Saturday. Israeli settlers are carrying out widespread attacks and thefts with support from some religious leaders. On Friday, Rabbi Dov Lior, the spiritual guide of National Security Minister Itamar Ben‑Gvir’s Jewish Power party, declared that settlers may take olives from Palestinian orchards, stating that “Jews are permitted to harvest olives even in areas far from Jewish settlements in order to publicly demonstrate our ownership of the land and thereby fulfill the commandment of conquering the land.” A settler chat group posted that “an olive tree today is more significant in the campaign for Judea and Samaria than an M16 rifle.” Sarit Michaeli, former international advocacy director of the Israeli human‑rights group B’Tselem, said that settlers were stealing the Palestinian olive crop on a scale never seen before in her 22‑year career.
Under this ideological push, dozens of attacks on olive harvesters have been reported each day. On October 16, about 80 masked settlers armed with clubs charged at Palestinians picking olives in Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah. Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, 63, fell and was beaten for more than ten minutes by settlers, according to video footage and her own account. She suffered broken ribs, required hand surgery and had her camera, phone and passport stolen. Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak reported that soldiers later shot a village council member, Abdel Jaber Obeid, in the thigh.
On Saturday, masked settlers with clubs attacked a delegation visiting Taybeh, east of Ramallah. The delegation included Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and church representatives. A window of a Belgian consulate vehicle was smashed. French mayor Bernard Baudoux, 78, was kicked and beaten during the attack.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was “very disturbed” by the incidents, while U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee called Levine’s attack “a despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards.” France demanded arrests and the European Union said it expected “full accountability.” Israel’s military described the Taybeh attack as “severe,” and Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot called settler violence “Jewish terror under the auspices of the government of Israel,” according to The Times of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office offered a conditional condemnation of Levine’s attack, saying questions remained about “who initiated the violence.” After the Taybeh attack, his office reiterated that “the more serious the accusation, the stronger the evidence required.”
On Monday, police and the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet launched “Operation Olive Leaf,” arresting 10 Israelis in raids near Ofra and Shiloh in connection with these attacks on foreign journalists and diplomats. No other arrests or investigations have been announced for the dozens of other settler attacks against Palestinians reported over the weekend.
Other settler attacks across the West Bank included: - Two women beaten in Beit Lid on Tuesday; an American citizen, Haytham Tayseer, was injured in Burqa on Thursday, suffering deep head wounds. - Six people, including four women and a child, were injured in Ma’in, Masafer Yatta, on Saturday, according to the Red Crescent. - Four vehicles were burned in Turmus Aya, including a civil‑defence vehicle, and a mosque was set on fire in Mikhmas, Wafa reported. - About 20 sheep were stabbed to death in Kafr Malek, Mayor Najeh Rustum told Al Jazeera. - Bulldozers uprooted hundreds of olive trees in Kafr Malek, and settlers cut down 120 olive trees in Kisan, near Bethlehem, Wafa reported.
In Gaza, the humanitarian situation is worsening. Israel declared on October 14 that no commercial goods would be allowed to enter Gaza, citing a dispute between merchants and Hamas over a 10,000‑shekel ($3,220) per‑truck fee. Gaza’s Government Media Office called the claim a “blatant disinformation campaign,” saying the sum was a voluntary contribution to a fund for widows and orphans. By Sunday, prices had risen sharply: a carton of eggs increased from 35 shekels ($11.30) to 60–70 shekels ($18–21), and a sack of flour rose from 25–35 shekels ($7.50–10.50) to about 80 shekels ($24).
The World Food Programme announced it would cut the number of people it feeds monthly in Gaza from 1.6 million to 1.1 million. Gaza’s Health Ministry said 466 people have died of malnutrition since 2024 and 67 percent of the population faces crisis‑level food insecurity or worse through year‑end. Israeli forces continued to kill Palestinians in Gaza each day. As of October 19, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported 1,522 killed and 5,421 wounded since last year’s ceasefire, with 27 killed in the past week, 33 the previous week and 38 the week before. The cumulative death toll has reached 74,480 since October 7, 2023.
Among the Palestinians killed: three children, including 14‑year‑old Muhammad Riyad Abu Hammad, were killed in Deir el‑Balah; Misk Hazem al‑Dalu and Tamer Shadi Subh were killed in the Maghazi camp and Beit Lahiya, respectively. UNICEF said more than 340 children have been killed since the ceasefire.
Drone strikes in the past week killed Ahmad Raja al‑Shaer and Basel Nabil Qeshta in al‑Qarara; Reem Awad in a Gaza City apartment; Mahmoud al‑Madhoun and Ubaida Murtaja in Gaza City; Abdullah and Imad Jaber and Sheikh Majid al‑Sabbagh, a Quran school director in Tuffah, on October 17; Amer al‑Horani near a Jabalia clinic the same day; and police officer Abd al‑Jawad Joudeh in Rafah. Shootings killed Saddam al‑Za’anin in Jabalia, Hatem Abu Hasanein by quadcopter fire, Huda Abu Adwan, 49, in al‑Mawasi and Wijdan Shurrab, 28, in eastern Khan Younis, according to Wafa and local activists. Israel’s military said several of those killed this week were Hamas members, but none of its claims have been independently verified.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued advancing 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 extend across about 65 percent of Gaza, far beyond what was envisaged under last year’s ceasefire agreement.