Khaberni - Muayyad Sha'ban, the head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission in the Palestinian Authority, stated that the Israeli occupation army and extremist settlers carried out a total of 340 attacks against olive pickers since the start of the season in the first week of October.
Sha'ban added in a statement for the commission today, Thursday, that the occupation army executed 62 attacks, and the settlers executed 278 attacks, pointing out that these attacks ranged from severe physical assault, arrest campaigns, movement restrictions, denial of access, intimidation in all its forms, and direct shootings as occurred in Tubas Governorate.
Sha'ban pointed out that the attacks were concentrated in Ramallah Governorate with 107, followed by Nablus with 94, and Hebron with 38 attacks.
He noted that the current season recorded 92 cases of movement restrictions and terrorizing of olive pickers, as well as 59 cases of beating and assault against the farmers, explaining that this season, which coincided with the ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people, is the most difficult and dangerous in recent decades, due to the army and settlers exploiting war systems in committing crimes, backed by many policies and legislations that enhance cases of assault and restriction, especially the closing of governorates and handing over weapons to settlers' militias, and more dangerously, exempting them from accountability and prosecution.
He explained that this season witnessed deepened imposition of closed military zones on agricultural lands, with 125 attacks targeting farmlands planted with olives during the current season, including 170 operations of cutting, smashing, and bulldozing olive-planted lands which led to the destruction of a total of 1200 olive trees.
Sha'ban also stated that numerical data indicate an escalating pattern of registered attacks by the commission's documentation teams over past seasons, illustrating a noticeably pronounced policy of targeting the Palestinian olive season, where the attacks increased from 136 in the season of 2022 to 333 attacks in the season of 2023, and reached 407 attacks in 2024, totaling 340 attacks to this moment for the current season, clearly demonstrating the extent of targeting faced by Palestinian farmers.
On another note, the Israeli occupation forces demolished today two inhabited houses in the town of Qatna northwest of occupied Jerusalem.
Qatna municipal council said in a statement that the occupation forces with military reinforcements stormed the village, besieged it, and started their bulldozers demolishing the two inhabited houses, each spanning about 150 square meters and housing around 20 individuals.
Furthermore, the Israeli occupation forces carried out a widespread raid and arrest campaign in various areas of the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem affecting 20 Palestinians under the pretext that they are wanted.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club stated in a statement that the arrests were concentrated in the cities of Tulkarm, Ramallah, Al-Bireh, Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem, Tulkarm, and Jenin, and involved clashes and field interrogations.
Extremist settlers also demolished 4 "portable houses" belonging to Palestinians in the Hadhrura Bedouin gathering east of occupied Jerusalem city.
Hassan Mleihat, the General Supervisor of the Bidder Human Rights Organization, said that the settlers, with heavy machinery, stormed the Hadhrura Bedouin assembly within Al-Khan Al-Ahmar village east of Jerusalem, surrounded the area tightly, and began demolishing four portable houses belonging to Palestinians from the assembly, preventing the residents from approaching by force.
He added that the settlers demolished the portable houses and destroyed their contents, noting that they are used as residences and essential facilities for several families, exacerbating the suffering of the Bedouin citizens and exposing them to the risk of forced displacement.
In Ramallah, an elderly Palestinian woman was martyred after the Israeli occupation forces stormed her house, assaulted her family members, and arrested her grandson, in Al-Mazra'a Al-Gharbiyya village.
The Palestinian Red Crescent stated in a statement that the elderly woman martyred during the occupation's raid on her house, the arrest of her grandson, and the assault on the family members.
