Israeli settlers beat Palestinian farmers on video as attacks mount
during West Bank olive harvest
[October 22, 2025]
By JALAL BWAITEL and NATALIE MELZER
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli settlers descended on Palestinian
olive harvesters and activists this week in the Israeli-occupied West
Bank, beating them with clubs in an attack Palestinian health officials
said sent at least one woman to the hospital with serious injuries.
The attack Sunday in the town of Turmus Ayya, which was captured in
videos obtained by The Associated Press, came as Palestinians say
settler violence in the region is worsening. The United Nations and
rights groups have raised the alarm as harvest season begins and
Palestinian farmers are at growing risk while gathering olives.
“Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency," Ajith Sunghay,
the head of the U.N. Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory,
said in a statement released Tuesday. “Two weeks into the start of the
2025 harvest, we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers
against Palestinian men, women, children and foreign solidarity
activists."
In one of the videos obtained by the AP, a masked man was seen running
through an olive grove and beating at least two people with a club,
including a woman as she lay motionless on the ground. The masked man
appeared to be wearing tzitzit, a ritual fringed garment for Jews.
The woman was hospitalized with serious injures, the Ramallah-based
Palestinian Health Ministry said.
In a separate video, more than a dozen masked men were seen running down
a village road alongside an olive grove, pursuing a car. One settler
clubbed the car and opened the door. A passenger managed to escape and
run away with the group of men running after him.
A third video showed flames and smoke rising from several torched cars.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the head of the West Bank police force
said in an internal police WhatsApp group that the footage of the masked
settler beating the woman “kept him up at night” and instructed officers
to bring the settler to justice.
Israel's military and police did not respond to an AP request for
comment on the attack.
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This Oct. 19, 2025, image taken from video shows what appear to be
masked settlers beating activists and Palestinian farmers in Turmus
Ayya, West Bank. (AP Photo)
Turmus Ayya, whose population is predominantly Palestinian American,
has long been a target of settler attacks, but villagers say the
violence worsened during the Israel-Hamas war. It's nestled in a
valley surrounded by hilltops crowned with Israeli settlements and
outposts. Since t he killing of a 14-year old Palestinian-American,
Amer Rabee, by Israeli forces in the town in April protests against
settler violence and the military's perceived failure to curb it
have provoked regular clashes with settlers.
More broadly, s ettler violence is surging across the West Bank. The
U.N. says the first half of 2025 has seen 757 settler attacks
causing casualties or property damage — a 13% increase compared with
the same period last year.
The first week of olive harvest season has seen more than 150
settler attacks and over 700 olive trees uprooted, broken or
poisoned, according to Muayyad Shaaban, who heads an office in the
Palestinian Authority that is tracking the violence.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the
Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those
territories for a future independent state. Settler advocates hold
key Israeli Cabinet positions that grant them and the settlers an
important say over the West Bank.
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Melzer reported from Tel Aviv.
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