An Israeli settler's attack on a Palestinian woman harvesting olives in the occupied West Bank has sparked outrage after footage of the incident was shared widely on social media platforms.
The footage shows a masked settler rushing towards the woman and hitting her with a club, knocking her to the ground, before charging at other Palestinians nearby. The woman, 55, was taken to a hospital after the attack on Sunday morning in the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya.
The incident was filmed by US journalist and activist Jasper Nathaniel, who said the settler hit the woman again as she lay unconscious. It is only one of dozens of attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinians during the olive harvest in the West Bank this year.
A report issued by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 36 of 71 documented settler attacks between October 7 and 13 occurred in the context of the olive harvest season, which began on October 9.
The attacks, which affected Palestinians in 27 villages, included assaults on harvesters, theft of crops and harvesting equipment and vandalism of olive trees, and resulted in casualties and property damage, OCHA said. One man was killed and 99 were injured in the violence. At least 1,430 Palestinian-owned trees and saplings were damaged, it added.
"Two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men, women, children and foreign solidarity activists," the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay, said in a statement.
He added that "80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families rely on the olive harvest for their livelihoods. It is not an understatement to say that the harvest season is the economic backbone of rural Palestinian communities".
The olive harvest is also an integral part of the traditional and cultural heritage of Palestinians in the West Bank. Olive trees have become a universal symbol of how Palestinians are rooted to their land. Hossam Abu Nasser, a Palestinian historian and writer in Ramallah, previously told The National that Israeli attacks on farmers and their harvests were an attempt "to erase this deep connection to the land".
Palestinian media have reported settler attacks on olive harvesters in the West Bank on a near-daily basis. According to OCHA, they include attacks on farmers harvesting olives in areas that do not require co-ordination with Israeli security forces, who open fire and use tear gas on those who refuse to leave. Incidents also include the seizure of harvesting tools, the cutting down of olive saplings and trees and the theft of harvested olives.
Settler violence in the West Bank has been rising since Israel launched its war on Gaza after the deadly October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas. According to the UN Human Rights Office, at least 1,001 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then, with children accounting for one in five victims.
"In the first half of 2025, there have been 757 settler attacks that resulted in casualties or property damage. This is 13 per cent higher than the number of attacks documented in the same period in 2024," Mr Sunghay said.
While a fragile ceasefire has come into effect in Gaza, there has been no let-up in Israeli violence in the West Bank.
