The attacks, which include beatings of farmers and destruction of trees, preceded the formal start of the olive harvest season on October 12 in the occupied West Bank, but intensified in number over the past week.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler violence in the northern West Bank, told Al Jazeera they recorded 58 attacks since the start of the season, including nine on the village of Burin south of Nablus alone.

Harvesting olive trees is a key economic, familial and social activity for many Palestinians, who take days off work to tend to their lands, or those of their relatives, neighbours or friends. Between 80,000 to 100,000 families rely on olives and olive oil as primary or secondary sources of income.

While settler attacks are a frequent, near-daily reality for Palestinian villages, the number and intensity of attacks increase during the olive harvest season which runs until November, as settlers target families working on their lands.

On October 12, settlers uprooted 900 olive and apricot saplings, and stole olive crops in the village of Sebastia, north of Nablus. A further 70 olive trees were destroyed in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

In Awarta, east of Nablus, settlers chopped down dozens of olive trees on October 13 and sprayed them with chemicals. They also destroyed some 70 olive, fruit and vegetable trees in al-Tuwani south of Hebron, and slashed tyres, and vandalised cars and walls in the village of Marda near Salfit.

A Palestinian man inspects his olive tree that was cut by Israelis near Tubas in the occupied West Bank [File: Raneen Sawafta/Reuters]

‘Attacks began early’

On October 14, settlers cut down more than 80 olive trees in the village of al-Mughayyer, north of Ramallah.

The next day, they attacked the Hammoudeh family in the village of Yasuf near Salfit with rocks, injuring four. The family and other residents were attacked again on October 16. Settlers also beat residents of Burin near Nablus that day with batons, and set olive groves ablaze, injuring at least 12 Palestinians.

Daghlas said while in previous years “the attacks would begin a week after the start of the olive harvest”, this year, “the attacks began early”, which forced Palestinians to tend to their trees quicker than expected.

Since the end of August 2021, settlers have injured at least 22 Palestinians, and ruined at least 1,800 Palestinian-owned trees, including 900 trees in Sebastia (Nablus) and 650 in Jamma’in (Nablus) and al-Taybe (Hebron).