Local sources reported that Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, surrounded a house in the Al-Marah neighborhood, and arrested four Palestinians, one of them after a vehicle chase near the village of Marka, south of the city.
Meanwhile, armed settlers, accompanied by Israeli occupation soldiers, attacked Palestinian farmers in various areas of the West Bank, using sticks and dogs, resulting in injuries and suffocation to a number of olive pickers, according to the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
WAFA reported that the attacks were concentrated in the towns of Aqraba and Duma, south of Nablus, Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah, and Beit Awa, south of Hebron, while the occupation army prevented farmers from entering their agricultural lands and fired tear gas canisters at them.
The agency explained that a number of Palestinian farmers suffered suffocation and burns after being sprayed with pepper gas by settlers in the town of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah.
She added that settlers stole olive crops and destroyed dozens of trees, as part of a series of attacks that occur annually during the harvest season, which runs from October to November.
Earlier, head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Mu'ayyad Shaaban, said that attacks have damaged approximately 795 olive trees since the beginning of the season, describing the current season as "the most difficult in decades," given that the occupation has declared large areas "closed military zones.
The olive season is one of the most important agricultural seasons in Palestine, as thousands of families rely on it as a primary source of income. The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture indicated that this year's production does not exceed 15% of the normal rate.
In this context, Hamas stated that the attacks carried out by settlers against farmers in the occupied West Bank "fall within the framework of the policy of organized terrorism and the annexation and displacement plan sponsored by the occupation government," according to a press statement by leader Abdel Rahman Shadid.
Shadid added, "The escalation of brutal attacks in the governorates of Nablus, Hebron, and Ramallah comes in the context of the comprehensive aggression since the war of extermination in Gaza, and in an attempt to expand the settlements, terrorize the population, and force them to leave their lands."
The movement called on Palestinians to activate popular committees to protect villages and farmers, and demanded that international human rights organizations take "urgent action to document the crimes and hold the occupation accountable," asserting that the attacks amount to war crimes
On Wednesday, the Israeli Knesset approved, in preliminary reading, two bills concerning the West Bank and the Ma'ale Adumim settlement. However, the following day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that his Likud party did not support the bills, following US rejection of the annexation plan. President Donald Trump warned Tel Aviv that it would "completely lose Washington's support if this were to happen."
Since the start of the genocide in Gaza on October 8, 2023, settlers have carried out more than 7,000 attacks against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank, including 158 attacks targeting olive pickers since the beginning of this month, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
Overall, Israeli attacks in the West Bank since October 8, 2023, have resulted in the deaths of at least 1,057 Palestinians, the injury of approximately 10,000, and the arrest of more than 20,000, including 1,600 children, according to official Palestinian figures.
