AhlulBayt News Agency: A senior Hamas official has strongly denounced the escalating attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, describing them as part of “an organized terrorist policy.”
Abdul Rahman Shadid made the statement on Saturday, as assaults on Palestinian farmers have intensified, especially targeting those tending olive trees during the harvest season.
He emphasized that these attacks are part of a systematic campaign aimed at harming Palestinian land, people, and daily life in the West Bank.
Shadid added that the violence is intended to expand illegal settlements, intimidate residents, and force them to abandon their lands.
On Friday, in Turmus Ayya near Ramallah—a hotspot of violence this year—Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest, culminating in a disturbing incident caught on video.
The footage showed a masked young man striking an elderly Palestinian woman as she picked olives, causing her to fall to the ground.
This shocking scene has drawn attention to the rising violence surrounding this year’s olive harvest in the West Bank.
What was once a peaceful annual tradition has in recent years become a battleground involving settlers, Israeli forces, Palestinian farmers, and international activists.
The olive harvest season began in October and continues through mid-November, with Palestinians harvesting olives from trees they consider deeply symbolic of their national identity.
According to a 2021 census by the agriculture ministry, the West Bank contains over eight million olive trees, serving its three million Palestinian residents.
Each autumn, both rural farmers and urban dwellers with family-owned groves head to the fields to handpick olives in a cherished cultural ritual.
/129
Your Comment