Six Injured as Settler Attacks Spread Across West Bank Olive Harvest
Six Palestinians were injured on October 17, 2026, when Israeli settlers attacked residents in Ma'in village in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron. Four women and a child were among those hurt, according to reporting from the village.
The Ma'in attack was part of a wider series of incidents reported across the occupied West Bank that day during the olive harvest season. Al Jazeera reported 300 documented settler attacks since the beginning of October.
In Deir Ammar, west of Ramallah, Israeli forces opened fire on farmers picking olives and forced them to leave their land. Two Palestinians were shot and injured by Israeli settlers in the Deir Ammar area. In Burqa near Ramallah, Israeli forces and settlers prevented farmers from picking olives.
In Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, settlers fired live ammunition at farmers in the al-Hariq area to prevent them completing the harvest and forced them off their land. Settlers there smashed the vehicle of international activist Jonathan Budlak and threw stones at a farmer's vehicle.
Other villages reported damage to property and livestock. Settlers destroyed olive trees across the Beit Furik plain, east of Nablus, while Israeli forces arrested landowners and olive pickers. Settlers raided a farm in Kafr Malek, northeast of Ramallah, at dawn and killed about 20 sheep. Israeli forces had raided Kafr Malek the previous night, firing tear gas canisters that ignited a fire in a house and caused material damage.
In Abu Falah, Israeli settlers attacked the village while the Israeli military raided into the village and threw tear gas, according to video reporting. AP Israeli forces fired on a Palestinian civilian vehicle in Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem. Near Turmus, firefighters doused a burnt car with water after Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians harvesting olives. Reuters
The attacks followed a religious edict reported on October 16. Haaretz reported that Rabbi Dov Lior, a leading figure in the religious Zionist movement, ruled that Jews may harvest olives from Palestinian-owned groves. According to Israeli Channel 13 reporting, Lior claimed Palestinian land belongs to Jews and said harvesting olives demonstrates ownership.
The United Nations humanitarian office, OCHA, reported more than 1,040 Palestinians had been injured in settler attacks since the beginning of 2026, as of its August 28 report. OCHA At least 19 settler attacks were recorded across the West Bank on October 9, and Israeli forces detained 16 Palestinians in the West Bank around that date.
On October 7, one Palestinian was killed and 16 were wounded in an attack in the occupied West Bank. In early October, settlers attacked olive pickers, burned olive trees and detained dozens of people in the West Bank.
