Israeli Continues to Escalate Occupation in West Bank during Olive Harvest
Al Jazeera reports on November 8th, that Israeli occupation forces shot and murdered Abdel Rahman Darawsha during a raid on the Al-Far’a refugee camp, near the city of Tubas.
They go on to report that the military raids continued in a drive to force Palestinians from their land, reporting another attack on a group of Palestinian villagers, activists and journalists who were harvesting olives in the town of Beita, south of Nablus.
According to witness accounts the settlers descended from a nearby hill with clubs and rocks and started violently beating them. The attacks led to more than a dozen injuries that required medical attention, including a journalist who was severely bludgeoned and a 70-year-old activist who had his cheekbone and jaw broken.
Palestine Chronicle reports that, also on November 8th, Israel occupation forces raided the vicinity of Al-Amari refugee camp in the city of Al-Bireh in the central occupied West Bank. Israeli occupation forces also stormed the village of Shuqba, west of Ramallah in the central West Bank, leading to clashes between the occupational forces and the villagers. A group of youths were also attacked in the city of Jenin.
On November 7th, Israeli occupation forces shot and murdered two Palestinian 16-year-old youths in the town of al-Judeira, and 15 people were also injured in the gunfire. This happened during a protest against new Israeli settlements in the northern occupied West Bank.
One Palestinian was also shot after Israeli occupation forces opened fire on a demonstration in the town of Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm.
Israeli forces also carried out raids in multiple areas including Zita, the Old City of Nablus, Huwara, Ras al-Ain, Balata Camp, Halhul, Bethlehem, and Azzun.
On November 6th, Israeli overnight military raids in the West Bank resulted in the deaths of a teenager and an elderly woman, alongside widespread incursions, arrests, and escalating settler attacks against Palestinian property and peasants.
On November 3rd, a Palestinian youth was shot and murdered by a Israeli settler while another was murdered by Israeli occupation forces in the occupied West Bank early on Monday.
Ahmed Rabhi al-Atrash was shot in the head at close range by an illegal settler at the northern entrance to Hebron (al-Khalil).
These attacks are targeting the Palestinians, on an almost daily basis, during this years olive harvests, which serves as one of the main sources of livelihood for the Palestinians. In the years before Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, almost half of all cultivated land across the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip was planted with an estimated 10 million olive trees. Israeli settler-occupiers regularly burn olive trees as a form of intimidation and occupation, to force the Palestinians away from their homes and land.
