Israeli settlers fire at foreign solidarity activists and Palestinian farmers in West Bank

Israeli settlers on Tuesday opened fire on foreign solidarity activists and Palestinian farmers in Deir Istiya in the Salfit governorate in the West Bank, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. 

Israeli settlers also set fire to olive trees in the village of Marah Rabah, south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported.

The Palestinian Authority’s Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) said in November that since the harvest began in the first week of October, there have been at least 158 attacks across the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

More than 15,000 trees have been attacked since October 2024, CWRC said. 

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has condemned the alarming surge in Israeli settler attacks targeting Palestinian olive farmers across the occupied West Bank.

“October 2025 is on track to be the most violent month since Unrwa began tracking settler violence in 2013,” the agency said in a statement.

Unrwa’s West Bank director, Roland Friedrich, warned that the attacks “threaten the very way of life for many Palestinians”, as olive farming remains their main source of income.