Israeli Settlers Turn a Palestinian Rite Into a Gantlet of Violence and Fear

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This year’s olive harvest in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is the most violent in years, as settlers have attacked farmers and besieged homes, drawing condemnation from U.S. officials and others.

Israeli Settlers Turn a Palestinian Rite Into a Gantlet of Violence and Fear

This year’s olive harvest in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is the most violent in years, as settlers have attacked farmers and besieged homes, drawing condemnation from U.S. officials and others.

Palestinians harvesting olives last week in Khirbet Abu Falah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinians there last week, injuring several people, including an American journalist.Credit...

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· 11:38 min

Oct. 23, 2026

The families had only just begun harvesting olives when the attack started. Clad in all black, bearing metal batons and guns, Israeli settlers materialized without warning.

Ilham Al-Bazari, one of the Palestinians farming, froze. It was too late to run, she said.

Her husband was shot in the leg, and settlers attacked her teenage nephew. Believing they might spare a 50-year-old woman, Mrs. Al-Bazari said she jumped on top of her nephew to protect him. They broke her arm instead.

Her cousin, Ali Al-Bazari, an off-duty captain in the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, raced to help and was shot in the back by a settler.

The Israeli military showed up shortly after, Mrs. Al-Bazari and other witnesses said, as her cousin lay on the ground dying.

“We called on the soldiers to allow an ambulance,” she said. “But they refused.”

Mr. Al-Bazari, 44, died on Oct. 7, the first person killed in this year’s harvest — the most violent olive season in recent history, still weeks from ending. The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment about Mr. Al-Bazari’s case or other incidents described by Palestinians or seen by journalists from The New York Times.

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