RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian olive pickers and activists in the Israeli-occupied West Bank this week, beating them with clubs in an attack that Palestinian health officials said sent at least one woman to the hospital with serious injuries.
Sunday’s attack in the town of Turmus Ayya, which was captured on videos obtained by The Associated Press, came as Palestinians say settler violence in the region is worsening. The United Nations and human rights groups have raised the alarm as the harvest season begins and Palestinian farmers are increasingly at risk when harvesting olives.
“Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency,” Ajith Sunghay, head of the U.N. Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory, said in a statement released Tuesday. “Two weeks into the 2025 harvest, we have already seen serious 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 is seen running through an olive grove and hitting at least two people with a club, including a woman who was lying motionless on the ground. The masked man appeared to be wearing tzitzit, a fringed ritual garment for Jews.
The woman was hospitalized with serious injuries, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said.
In another video, more than a dozen masked men are seen running down a road in the town next to an olive grove, chasing a car. A settler hit the car and opened the door. A passenger managed to escape and flee with the group of men running after him.
A third video showed flames and smoke billowing from several burning cars.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the West Bank police chief said in an internal police WhatsApp group that images of the masked settler beating the woman “kept him awake 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.
Turmus Ayya, whose population is predominantly Palestinian American, has long been a target of settler attacks, but villagers say the violence worsened during the war between Israel and Hamas. It is nestled in a valley surrounded by hills topped by Israeli settlements and outposts. Since the killing of a 14-year-old Palestinian-American, Amer Rabee, by Israeli forces in the city in April, protests against settler violence and the military’s apparent inability to curb it have led to regular clashes with settlers.
More broadly, settler violence is increasing across the West Bank. The UN says there were 757 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage in the first half of 2025, a 13% increase compared to the same period last year.
The first week of the olive harvest season has seen more than 150 settler attacks and more than 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 Middle East war. Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state. Settler advocates hold key positions in the Israeli cabinet that give them and settlers an important voice in the West Bank.
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Melzer reported from Tel Aviv.