Savage beatings and dying trees: How West Bank settler violence is impacting Palestinians’ olive harvest

By Zeena Saifi, Jeremy Diamond, Cyril Theophilos, CNN

Hamra, West Bank (CNN) — Umm Shukry inspects her olive trees one by one, just as she did every year for a decade. But this olive harvest season is different. Nearly all her trees are damaged; their branches bare and brittle.

Examining each limb, she feels exhausted with sorrow.

“I am suffocated. I am suffocated from seeing my hard work turn out like this,” she told CNN. “I used to spend so much time here under the scorching heat, taking care of them… we’ve had this land for over 50 years.”

For the past two years, the 72-year-old has been prevented from accessing her land, cut off by settler violence and Israeli army restrictions. It sits opposite an illegal outpost in the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley. The Israeli settlers living there have assaulted and threatened her family, she said, forcing them to leave their land out of fear.

During their absence, settlers sent cows to graze on their olive trees, Umm Shukry’s son Shukry Shehadeh, explains.

Neighbors sent him videos of settlers damaging the land. He returned to find his home ransacked, solar panels stolen, and water tanks and irrigation pipes destroyed.

And perhaps most painfully, there were no olives in sight.

“They forced us to leave, and then they used extreme violence to destroy our olives, our home, our belongings. I am struggling to comprehend this shock,” Shehadeh says.

Growing impunity

Settler attacks on Shehadeh’s farm are part of a systematic pattern of settler impunity amid a sharp increase in attacks against Palestinians, particularly in the past two years.

In the first half of 2025, there were 757 settler attacks that caused casualties or property damage – a 13% increase compared with the same period last year, according to the United Nations’ human rights office (OHCHR).

This year’s harvest season has also seen some of the most brazen violence in recent years.

Palestinian olive pickers have been attacked at least 259 times since the harvest season began last month, according to figures gathered by the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC).

And as a result, more than 4,000 trees and saplings have been vandalized, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Many of these attacks have been widely documented and videos have surfaced online, showing some Palestinians left bloodied and beaten.

The UN has urged Israel, as the occupying power, to prevent further attacks in the West Bank.

“The failure to prevent or punish such attacks is inconsistent with international law,” the UN Humanitarian Relief Chief Tom Fletcher warned. “Palestinians must be protected. Impunity cannot prevail. Perpetrators must be held accountable.”

Dozens of videos filmed by Palestinian farmers and activists have shown masked Israeli settlers carrying clubs and sticks and sometimes wielding rifles while attacking Palestinians and Jewish activists standing in solidarity with them.

Other videos have shown settlers acting with soldiers nearby, often supporting them. On Sunday, Israeli soldiers were filmed stealing olives in the town of Sinjil, after declaring the area a military zone and expelling Palestinian farmers, according to Palestinian and Israeli activists who were present.

In a response to a query about the incident from CNN, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “the conduct of the forces is not in line with IDF values,” adding that the incident will be examined and “addressed disciplinarily.”

Palestinians say they have no recourse to seek justice when they are attacked, because they see the army as abetting the settlers. Under what activists call a two-tiered legal system in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians are subject to military law, while Israeli settlers are subject to Israeli civilian law.

Over the past two years, the Shehadehs have made several attempts to return to their land and their crops – only to be pushed back by settlers, the army or both.

They returned last Friday accompanied by Jewish and Israeli activists with the Israeli human rights organization Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), one of several that bring together hundreds of foreign volunteers to accompany and support Palestinian farmers during their annual harvest.

Sometimes there is safety in numbers, but not always.

Palestinians and activists across the West Bank have been assaulted or detained as they attempted peacefully to harvest olives. On October 27, Jewish activists sent CNN videos of Israeli soldiers and settlement security detaining farmers in the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan while they were harvesting olives.

Two Jewish-American women who joined Palestinians and RHR in the village of Burin last month were deported by Israeli authorities last Friday, according to a statement issued by the group, which said it “underscores Israel’s growing crackdown on civil society.”

The Israeli army declared the area a closed military zone – a security tool used to block Palestinians from accessing their land, according to Palestinian residents and activists on the ground. RHR said it was notable that none of the Jewish settlers who attacked Palestinian farmers in the area were arrested.

On Tuesday, Israeli volunteers with RHR were injured while accompanying Palestinian farmers in the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan. The group says those present were attacked by settlers and a soldier who fired shots in their direction.

Responding to a query from CNN about the Israeli military blocking Palestinians from accessing their lands, the IDF said it “recognizes the importance of the olive harvest in maintaining the fabric of life in the region,” but acknowledged it has restricted entry to certain areas in order to “prevent friction.”

“The IDF firmly condemns all forms of violence, which divert the attention of commanders and soldiers from their primary mission of defense and counterterrorism.”

A symbol of resilience

The olive tree is one of the most enduring symbols of Palestinians’ connection to their land. The yearly harvest is a historic ritual, deeply rooted in culture and tradition.

But its importance extends beyond symbolism and identity.

Up to 100,000 families depend on the olive harvest for a living, according to Ajith Sunghay, the head of OHCHR’s Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, who described it as “the economic backbone of rural Palestinian communities.”

“The olive here is never just a tree. It is livelihood and lineage, resilience and economy, and a historic vein connecting Palestinians to the land,” he said.

For Shehadeh, a big part of his income depends on olives. He said in the two years that he’s been away from his groves, he’s lost the equivalent of close to $25,000.

And as the settler attacks intensify, so does the effort to drive Palestinians from their land, led by hardliners in the Israeli government.

Sunghay warns that the rise in settler violence is occurring “against the backdrop of an accelerated Israeli land grab,” with officials “openly declaring their intent to annex the whole of the West Bank.”

US President Donald Trump has said he would not allow Israel to do that. But for most Palestinians, de-facto annexation is already unfolding daily.

Israel has built more military checkpoints, roadblocks and iron gates across the occupied territory, heavily restricting freedom of movement. According to a UN report from May, there are at least 849 “movement obstacles that permanently or intermittently restrict the movement of 3.3 million Palestinians across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

Illegal outposts are also being legalized by Israel and growing at a rapid pace. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in September that Israel had “doubled Jewish settlements” in the West Bank – considered illegal under international law – and “will continue on this path.”

With the attention on Gaza, the Trump administration has done almost nothing to curtail these moves. Palestinians in turn say they feel helpless in the face of such aggression.

Remaining steadfast

Ahmad Shakarna knows all too well what it means to feel helpless. On October 25, the 58-year-old received a call from neighbors that his mother-in-law had been detained by Israeli soldiers while picking olives in the village of Nahalin in Bethlehem.

He rushed to find her, he told CNN, only to learn the soldiers had dragged her from her olive groves and forced her to climb a rocky hill toward the military watchtower overlooking the nearby settlement of Beitar.

Shakarna grabbed her medication and headed to try to reach her, fearing for her life. But he was aware that confronting the soldiers might endanger his life as well, he said.

When he reached her, a settler suddenly descended from atop the hill, grabbing Shakarna and beating him, before two Israeli soldiers pushed him to the ground.

In a video of the attack that was widely circulated on social media, one soldier is seen striking him with the barrel of his rifle, before the settler comes in to land several more punches. Shakarna said he briefly lost his eyesight and was evaluated with a mild concussion at the hospital.

“Isn’t it an odd sight to see – an army holding a civilian and allowing settlers to beat him?” he told CNN.

After five hours of interrogation, he and his mother-in-law were released without charge; proof, he says, that they did nothing wrong.

The IDF told CNN an investigation had been opened into the incident, but said it could not provide details about an ongoing investigation. But Shakarna doesn’t believe it will be sincere.

“They know exactly what happened, but they don’t care. They want to hide the crime they committed,” he said. If the incident hadn’t been caught on video, it would’ve “come and gone” even if he were killed, he said.

“The life of a Palestinian is worth nothing,” he said.

But Shakarna is determined to remain steadfast on his land.

“The olive tree existed before the occupation,” he said. “It is valuable and dear to us… we will not abandon it.”

‘I won’t leave’

Back in the Jordan Valley, Umm Shukry continues to wade through the olive groves with unsteady yet quick steps, shuffling between broken branches and dried-out leaves.

She speaks in a stream of emotion without pause, trying to make sense of her situation. “Why do they have to keep tormenting us and ruining our lives? Just let us come back here and water our trees… what did we do to deserve this violence?” she asks.

After circling the farm in exhausted loops, she finally settles beneath a tree to rest.

“Ten years of hard work. Ten years of me spending time on this land, refusing to leave,” she mumbles as tears fall.

“But this is where I want to be. I will remain here underneath my olives. I won’t leave.”

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