West Bank olive harvest, an annual flashpoint, presses ahead amid obstacles and violence

Abd al-Halim Mansour, a resident of the West Bank village of Deir Istiya, farms year-round. For most of the year, he works in his family-owned orchards, where they grow various kinds of fruit trees, including lemons. But every fall, his focus turns to olives. Mansour owns 500 olive trees, and October and November are when the small green fruits are harvested and pressed into olive oil. It’s also when violence against Palestinians has historically been most rife, with every year seeing attacks by extremist settlers on villagers making their way into the groves to harvest the olives. Reaching the trees often brings Palestinians into closer proximity to settlers than normal, resulting in fraught and often violent confrontations. In recent years, Israeli authorities have responded to what they euphemistically term “friction” by issuing closed military orders on the olive groves, ostensibly barring access for settlers, Palestinians and Israeli or foreign activists who traditionally come out to help harvest the fruits and protect the farmers. In reality, critics say, the orders are often only enforced against one side, and it’s not the settlers, stymying the harvest. This year, with settler violence and settlement expansion reaching unprecedented levels, there are fears that such restrictions will be more widespread than ever, making the annual harvest not only fraught with danger but also potentially impossible for many farmers. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address Get it By signing up, you agree to the terms “The army wants less unrest, but it has only one tool — to push the Palestinians back as much as possible,” said Ksenia Svetlova, a former Zionist Union Knesset member who closely follows developments in the West Bank. She described the army’s message as “Don’t harvest, and let’s be done with this whole thing.” “They don’t officially say, ‘Don’t go out,’ but Palestinians in Area A are already encountering problems [trying to harvest] this year,” she said, referring to the part of the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority has civil and security control and where Israelis are supposed to be banned from entering. In the other parts of the West Bank, where the Israeli military has authority and where settlements and outposts dot the landscape, the situation is liable to be even worse. Advertisement According to Peace Now, as of August 2026 there were 390 outposts –unauthorized, often tiny, settlements — in the West Bank, 65 of which were established this year and more than 240 since 2023, bringing settlers into closer proximity to areas where Palestinians harvest their olives. “It looks like this is going to be a difficult year [in terms of our ability to harvest]. I hope we’re wrong, but there is concern that it will be a difficult year,” said Mansour, pointing to a settler outpost farm established several hundred meters from his trees in the Deir Istiya area, west of Ramallah. Beyond the violence, curbs on the harvest can have deep ramifications for the ailing Palestinian economy, with olives making up a key portion of the West Bank’s GDP. “The olive industry is considered the backbone of the [Palestinian] agricultural sector and constitutes a source of livelihood for most villages in Judea and Samaria — more than 100,000 families, comprising over 500,000 people,” Israel’s Civil Administration, the body responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank, wrote in a document published ahead of this year’s harvest. Mansour’s 500 trees can produce roughly 80 15-liter jerrycans of olive oil, he told The Times of Israel, which accompanied him on the first day of the harvest late last week. Standing on a ladder and picking olives from a tree, Mansour estimated that selling the oil produced from all his trees this year could bring in a total of around NIS 64,000 ($20,900) — equivalent to more than 20 average monthly salaries in the Palestinian Authority territories. Advertisement But he has no certainty that he will manage to complete the harvest before trouble begins. Abd al-Halim Mansour, a resident of Deir Istiya, harvests olives from trees he owns, October 1, 2026. (Nurit Yohanan/Times of Israel) Mansour’s first day of harvesting passed without incident, but less than a week into what is considered the harvest season, reports of attacks on villagers by settler extremists elsewhere have already become a daily occurrence. “There’s a new outpost here that was established a few months ago, and there’s a settler there who controls the entire area. He can come over to us and call the army [to remove us from the area],” Mansour alleged. “About 40 percent of the trees belonging to residents of the village are near him. I hope the harvest passes [peacefully].” No access Among the hardiest crops, olive trees need far less attention than many others, able to thrive on whatever rain the Mediterranean climate provides. Many Palestinian farmers visit their groves only a few times a year, with the main work taking place in autumn. Farmers and groups of helpers leave their villages and travel to wherever their groves are located, spending the days beating or shaking loose the ripe fruit, which is gathered in nets spread beneath the branches. When these groves are near settlements, Israelis may view the sight of Palestinians on land where they are rarely present as a security threat, leading to clashes. In the last few years, as extremists have widened their footprint across the West Bank, more and more groves have been put within proximity of settlers primed to see any movement by Palestinians as an encroachment to be met with force. “As every year, the enemy is expected to exploit the proximity to communities and settlement points to carry out terror attacks and violent provocations,” prominent far-right settler activist Elisha Yered wrote on social media ahead of this year’s harvest. Advertisement He called on the military to preemptively ban Palestinians and the activists who come to help them, terming them “provocateurs and anarchists.” “The security establishment is asleep on the job and only wakes up when these rioters are already knocking on the doors of residents of the farming and hilltop outposts, forcing them to defend themselves with their bare hands,” he added. Palestinians and activists offer a different view, describing incidents in which well-armed extremists, often backed by the army, confront Palestinians and activists attempting to harvest olives in groves near settlements or outposts. Under Israeli law, Palestinians must be allowed to harvest land that is established as being privately owned by them. Under Civil Administration procedures, agricultural areas are divided into two categories: those where Palestinians can harvest freely, and those where prior coordination with the Civil Administration is required because of their proximity to a settlement or military base. An IDF soldier aims his rifle during a reported attack by settlers on Palestinians picking olives in the village of Beita, south of Nablus, in the West Bank on October 2, 2026. (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP) In the latter areas, the Civil Administration designates specific days on which Palestinians are permitted to access the land and informs them of those dates. Landowners whose groves require prior coordination are supposed to be notified by the Civil Administration. Because Israel has never completed a comprehensive land survey in the West Bank, many plots do not have a definitively established legal status. At the start of each olive harvest season, the Civil Administration publishes online a map showing the areas where prior coordination is required. The map released for 2026 includes 737 plots where coordination is required or where Israelis are banned from entering, over 70 more than the previous year. Olive trees belonging to residents of the village of Deir Istiya in the western West Bank, with a settlement in the background, October 1, 2026. (Nurit Yohanan/Times of Israel) The army may also issue closed military zone orders restricting access to plots, though those are supposed to be temporarily imposed as a means of keeping settlers and Palestinians away from each other. “Every year, the IDF works to ensure a safe and orderly olive harvest for farmers,” the IDF said in a statement. “In cases where the harvest is disrupted, troops are instructed to take the necessary measures to allow it to continue without interference. Security forces oversee the harvest in areas where security coordination is required in order to maintain the safety and security of the area and its residents.” Advertisement In recent years, and particularly since the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023, many Palestinians have said that such procedures exist only on paper, with soldiers or settlers forcing them off land they own, often violently, including areas where prior coordination is not required. At the end of the 2025 olive harvest season, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it had documented 86 settler attacks that left 112 Palestinians injured. According to the UN, 80 incidents were recorded during the equivalent period in 2024, leaving 50 Palestinians injured. These complaints come amid widespread uprooting of olive trees across the West Bank by the IDF in recent months, which the military says is being carried out for security reasons. Fares al-Dik, a resident of Kafr ad-Dik, told The Times of Israel that he has been unable to reach 550 olive trees he owns north of the village, spread across two plots, for the past four years. Until October 7, 2023, he said, he had been able to access the land and harvest the trees without interference. Although the plots are relatively close to the settlement of Leshem, he said prior coordination had not been required, and residents of the settlement had seen him harvesting there and knew him. The 2023 olive harvest season was cut short midway through. “The last time I reached the land was on October 5, 2023. I tried to get there later that year, but soldiers stopped us before we reached it [and told us we weren’t allowed to approach]. They said, ‘This is a closed military zone.’ The following year, in 2024, neighbors of mine [who own an adjacent plot] went there, and soldiers came and removed them before they managed to harvest, saying it was a closed military zone.” Al-Dik has not attempted to return to the land since then, fearing that he could be detained or harmed, but he suspects that the restriction remains in place. In recent years, a fence and gate have been erected around the plots, though it is unclear by whom. He did not receive any notification from the Civil Administration that prior coordination was required to harvest in the area. The IDF said in response that the area was being managed “in accordance with the situational assessment. The village is not under closure, residents are able to enter and leave the village, and olive harvesting is permitted in the area.” Al-Dik said he has documents establishing his ownership of the land and that the ownership itself is not in dispute. “The question isn’t whether the land is ours; it’s that ‘you’re not allowed to go there,’” he said. Israeli soldiers stop Palestinian farmers from Salem village at a checkpoint before entering through a closed gate onto their land to pick olives, east of Nablus in the West Bank, on November 22, 2025. (Jaafar ASHTIYEH/AFP) According to al-Dik, many of the roughly 6,000 residents of his village face similar difficulties and have been unable in recent years to reach olive trees they own around the village, either because soldiers have prevented them from doing so or because of settler attacks. “There’s an area southwest of the village where an outpost was established in 2024. Whenever a [Palestinian] farmer approaches, he [the settler at the outpost] sends a drone toward him, and settlers arrive on ATVs and force him out,” he said. Millions in losses Residents of six villages in the southern Hebron Hills have sought to quantify the losses they say they have suffered in recent years as a result of being denied access