Israeli forces attack Palestinian olive farmers in occupied West Bank

Palestinian farmers in the town of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem, say Israeli forces attacked them as they harvested olives, according to the Wafa news agency.

Mohammed Fanoun told Wafa that soldiers “verbally and physically assaulted” him and his brother in the Sidr Ein Fares area, detained them for several hours, and later arrested his brother. He said the troops also damaged their harvested olives and confiscated their tools.

The assault came just a day after the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that this year’s olive harvest in the occupied West Bank has been the most violent since 2020, with Israeli settlers and soldiers vandalising more than 4,000 olive trees.