At a time when the Palestinians are optimistic about the olive season; Since the trees are bearing abundant fruit this year, and the Israeli army has pledged to facilitate the harvesting operations that are supposed to begin this month, farmers find themselves facing a new attack. The extremist settlers, who made last season the most violent in the past 20 years, are giving signals that they are preparing for a more violent and aggressive season, and the army itself is carrying out uprooting operations and continues to protect these aggressors.
According to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the Israeli authorities, olives are the main source of income for more than half a million Palestinians living in rural areas in the West Bank. Their dependence on agriculture has increased since the outbreak of war, as a result of severe economic difficulties. Israel has canceled most work permits issued to workers from the West Bank, and is withholding and deducting billions in Palestinian tax money.
These measures have brought the Palestinian Authority and its citizens to the brink of collapse. However, last year, fear of settlers and the lack of olive yields prompted many residents to give up going to the fields. The increase in the number of settlements and settlement outposts has increased the dangers this year. But the evaluation of profit is also different - and its importance increases in the context of poverty and unemployment. It is expected that the first rains, which will wash away the dust from the olives, herald the beginning of the harvesting season, as the season will begin in the coming days.
According to a report by journalist Matan Golan in the Haaretz newspaper, the settlers are preparing to repeat their attacks. Last week, residents of Hebron reported settlers stealing olives from fields, and the uprooting of trees was documented... Two of the reports came from Area A, which Israelis are prohibited from entering by law.
At the same time, settlers in several areas of the West Bank continue to encroach on Palestinian olive fields to graze their sheep, causing damage to trees and crops.
According to the United Nations Office for Human Rights (OCHA), settlers carried out 364 violent incidents between October and mid-November. These incidents included attacks launched by settlers; Such as burning property and fields, stealing, killing animals, and uprooting trees.
The first months of 2026 witnessed more than 1,600 incidents involving settlers against Palestinians, resulting in physical injuries or destruction of property, compared to more than 1,800 incidents in all of last year, and that was before the start of the olive harvest season.
According to the OCHA office, from the previous harvest season in October 2025 until last September, about 28,000 Palestinian trees and seedlings, most of them olive trees, were uprooted in the West Bank in incidents attributed to settlers.
Haaretz reports, citing Israeli peace activists, who usually join the pickers in solidarity with them, that the practices of the Israeli army itself are no less bad than settler attacks. He continues to issue preventive closure orders under the pretext of preventing friction and protecting Palestinians from settler attacks during the olive harvest. In practice, the issuance of these orders by the army allows activists to be prevented from reaching the olive fields. During the previous harvest season, the army issued more than 22 similar orders.
Many farmers in the West Bank are experiencing mixed feelings these days. Unlike last year, the olive trees this year are laden with fruits, and the reason is the phenomenon of “floating.” The tree bears abundant fruit one year and the yield is low the following year. The year 2026 is expected to be a good year. The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture expects the crop to double, increase, and reach about 125 kg per dunum.
However, the size of the crop is no longer the only factor that determines the fate of the season; Traditionally, the olive picking season is also the peak of settler violence, and the previous picking days, in the fall of last year, were the most violent recorded in the West Bank in the last twenty years, since the United Nations began monitoring settler violence.
A Palestinian farmer, who requested that his name not be published, narrated that his fields, which include 4,000 olive trees, are a source of pride for him. He says, according to the report: “Just like our children and grandchildren, we would eat and cook under the tree, and even the settlers who lived near us would come and help us pick olives. But over the years other neighbors came, and today only about a thousand trees remain in the field.”
According to him, the basis of the work was carried out by one settler, who a few years ago established a settlement outpost near the place. “This bastard ruined our lives. We have been robbed of all means of livelihood and have nowhere to go. We are like the dead - the living; This week, just before the start of the olive harvest season, settlers stormed my fields and uprooted the olive trees. This has been happening for years, and we refuse to adapt to it. I don't understand how someone could uproot olive trees like that. Do you want to seize the land? I leave the olives, but he knows where it hurts us.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, from southern Lebanon, said today, Friday, that the extent of the needs resulting from the recent war between Hezbollah and Israel exceeds the capabilities of the Lebanese state and requires significant funding, according to Agence France-Presse.
On the sidelines of a visit he began on Friday morning to Nabatieh, one of the largest cities in the south, which was subjected to widespread destruction as a result of Israeli strikes during the war with Hezbollah, Salam said, addressing the people of the south: “I realize the magnitude of the crisis. I know your fatigue and I understand the suffering of those who lost their home, those who lost their work or their source of livelihood, and those who are waiting to be able to restore their home or return to their town and restore their lives. But the scale of the needs exceeds the capabilities of the Lebanese state and its ability to bear these burdens alone.”
He added: “We still need significant funding. But I want you to be confident that we are striving, and we will continue to strive, to secure everything we can to advance the south.”
Lebanon entered the war on March 2 after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel, which it said were in response to the killing of Iranian guide Ali Khamenei in the first American and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. Israel responded with an intense campaign of raids and a ground incursion by its forces, which occupied dozens of towns and villages in southern Lebanon, with widespread bombing attacks.
In his speech before the Lebanese Parliament in mid-September, Nawaf Salam indicated that the cost of the two recent wars between Israel and Hezbollah since October 2023 on Lebanon may exceed $27 billion, according to World Bank estimates.
Despite the announcement of a ceasefire since June, Nabatieh and its surroundings were subjected to intense Israeli strikes.
This is the second visit by a senior official to the city since the outbreak of the war, after a similar visit made by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun last month.
Salam's tour includes a visit to security headquarters after they were rehabilitated and restored after they were damaged during the recent war, and the laying of the foundation stone for a new headquarters for the Lebanese Civil Defense.
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The Lebanese authorities are trying hard, despite their modest capabilities, to advance reconstruction efforts.
Salam said: “I am here today to confirm the return of state institutions to their work.” It is an essential part of the return of life to this dear city, and it will be in the service of supporting the steadfastness of its good people and stabilizing their survival in their land.”
He announced the launch of 23 tenders in the Nabatieh district, including, among other projects, removing obstacles, restoring roads, rehabilitating shelter centers, and providing ambulances and medical equipment.
The intensity of the fighting calmed down after a memorandum of understanding was reached between Iran and the United States in June, and then Lebanon and Israel signed a framework agreement stipulating the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the lands it had penetrated into southern Lebanon, and the deployment of the Lebanese army, starting from two “experimental” areas.
Hezbollah refuses to disarm, and also refuses direct negotiations with Israel.
Israel continues to occupy large areas in southern Lebanon, where it announced the establishment of a “security zone” up to ten kilometers deep along its borders, and continues to carry out massive strikes, demolitions and explosions.
In his speech, Salam stressed the importance of “mobilizing the capabilities and support we can to achieve complete Israeli withdrawal and rebuild the state.” A capable and effective state, one state for all its people, one army, and one decision, especially the decision of war and peace.”
He continued, "This is the way so that we do not find ourselves again facing a new war, new pretexts for attacking Lebanon, or a new expansion of the occupation."
