---
title: "Israeli Settler Attacks During the Olive Harvest Already Top Last Year’s Full Total"
description: "One Palestinian is dead, more than 120 are injured, and journalists and diplomats have been among the targets"
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-10-20T06:22:33Z
modified: 2026-10-20T18:27:53Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/israeli-settler-attacks-during-the-olive-harvest-already-top-1d2779
language: en
tags: ["israel", "palestine", "security", "olive-harvest", "war", "mideast"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Israeli Settler Attacks During the Olive Harvest Already Top Last Year’s Full Total

*One Palestinian is dead, more than 120 are injured, and journalists and diplomats have been among the targets*

By rews desk · October 20, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/israeli-settler-attacks-during-the-olive-harvest-already-top-1d2779

## In brief

- The UN said Friday that settlers carried out more than 200 attacks since Sept. 1, topping the 185 recorded in all of the 2025 harvest
- The attacks have killed one Palestinian, injured more than 120 and damaged more than 2,500 olive trees, OCHA said
- Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine and a group of European diplomats were among those attacked over the weekend
- The Israeli police said 10 people were arrested after the weekend’s attacks, The Washington Post reported; Gaza commercial imports were halted
- Villages such as al-Mughayyir have organized night watches; about 94% of tracked police cases over settler attacks close without charges

Israeli settlers have carried out more than 200 attacks on Palestinian farmers since this year’s olive harvest began on Sept. 1, the United Nations said on Friday, [Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/20/palestine-weekly-israeli-settlers-attack-journalist-and-diplomats), passing the 185 attacks documented over the entire 2025 season with more than a month of picking still to go.

The attacks have killed one Palestinian, injured more than 120 people and damaged more than 2,500 trees, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission recorded 34 attacks on Friday alone that injured at least 19 people, and another 40 on Saturday.

Journalists and diplomats were among the targets. On Friday, [masked settlers beat Heidi Levine](https://rews.cc/a/masked-settlers-beat-a-washington-post-photographer-at-the-a-8084f9), an American photojournalist working with The Washington Post, as she photographed the harvest in Abu Falah near Ramallah; [Reuters reported](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-settlers-burn-olive-trees-injure-journalist-west-bank-attack-2026-10-16/) that settlers also burned olive trees in that attack. Settlers [also assaulted a group of European diplomats](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/17/several-palestinians-injured-detained-in-ongoing-west-bank-pogrom) near the village of Taybeh. The Israeli police said 10 people had been arrested in connection with the weekend’s violence, [according to The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/10/19/police-arrest-10-after-violent-west-bank-attacks-during-olive-harvest-israel-says/). Israel has also halted commercial imports into Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.

For Palestinians in villages such as al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, protection is organized from below: residents have set up night watches to fend off settler attacks, [Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/features/2026/10/19/the-night-watch-palestinians-protecting-their-homes-from-settler-pogroms). Abdul Rahman Jabr, 32, built his house on the outskirts of the village in early 2023, shortly before his marriage. Settlers attacked it more than a year ago, and he has since strung barbed wire to fend off further attacks. He lives there with his wife and their two-year-old daughter, and the assaults on his home and his neighbors’ have intensified over the past year.

Official remedies are rare. About 94 percent of tracked police cases over settler attacks close without charges, [one examination of police files found](https://rews.cc/a/settlers-use-sheep-to-claim-west-bank-land-as-attacks-hit-a--366404). The harvest still has weeks to run.

## Sources

- [Israeli settlers attack journalist and diplomats as olive harvest violence tops 2025 total](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/20/palestine-weekly-israeli-settlers-attack-journalist-and-diplomats) — aljazeera.com
- [The night watch: Palestinians protecting their homes from settler pogroms](https://aljazeera.com/features/2026/10/19/the-night-watch-palestinians-protecting-their-homes-from-settler-pogroms) — aljazeera.com