Residents of the occupied West Bank are organizing night watches amid settler attacks on communities and olive groves, adding a security burden to a harvest supporting up to 100,000 Palestinian families.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented 244 attacks by settlers across 113 communities from Sept. 29 to Oct. 12. Its count covers incidents that caused casualties, property damage or both. OCHA also recorded 181 Palestinians injured “in the context of settler attacks” during that period.
In a separate tally covering Sept. 1 to Oct. 12, OCHA identified 199 settler attacks connected to the olive harvest. It recorded one Palestinian death and 124 injuries, as well as damage to more than 2,500 trees and saplings. The figures are preliminary and cover the period before the harvest’s official Oct. 15 start.
Volunteers in Sinjil have kept watch for approaching settlers for months. Reuters photographed guards there on June 26. The Associated Press reported that residents used flashlights and phone calls to alert neighbors during a July 16 watch.
For one resident, protecting his family has also meant missing work. Al Jazeera reported that Abdul Rahman Jabr of al-Mughayyir installed fencing after repeated approaches to his property and stayed home from work to protect his family.
OCHA estimates that 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families rely on the olive harvest. It warned that obstacles to reaching farmland, violence and damage to farm assets threaten production. Its records show 33 harvest-related settler attacks in 2020 and 185 in 2025.
Israeli rights group Yesh Din said 3% of the police investigation files it monitored from 2005 through 2025 led to full or partial convictions. The files concern ideologically motivated crimes against Palestinians; the percentage does not represent all reported attacks.
The Israeli military told Reuters that troops deploy to disperse confrontations and that police are responsible for Israeli civilians’ actions in the West Bank. Reuters said Israeli police did not respond to its request for comment about Sinjil. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says Israel, as the occupying power, is responsible for protecting Palestinians from settler violence. Julien Lerisson, head of the ICRC delegation for Israel and the occupied territories, said, “The frequent and severe violence must be brought to an end.”
