Settlers reportedly attack Palestinian olive pickers south of Nablus as harvest season begins

Settlers reportedly attack Palestinian olive pickers south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, amid the start of the tense harvest season. The IDF does not immediately comment on any of the incidents.

In Osarin, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society says it took a 50-year-old man to the hospital after settlers beat him. The wounded man can be seen carried into town on a ladder he reportedly used to pick olives.

باستخدام "السلّم" الذي يستعمله لقطف الزيتون..

نقل مزارع أصيب جراء اعتداء مليشيات المستوطنين عليه في أرضه بقرية أوصرين جنوب نابلس. pic.twitter.com/gAxCBWzep7

— شبكة فلسطين للحوار (@paldf) October 3, 2026

WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, says the settlers hurled stones at homes and vehicles in the village. Footage from the town shows over a dozen people identified as settlers smashing a vehicle parked outside a house.

هجوم المستوطنين على قرية أوصرين جنوب نابلس pic.twitter.com/6MT1gGBcfP

— جريدة القدس (@alqudsnewspaper) October 3, 2026

A man from Osarin tells the Al Araby network after the attack that settlers from west of the town “attack us, our homes, our children, every day.”

Pointing to olive trees behind him, he says, “nobody knows how we’ll pick the olives.”

In Beita, where settlers also reportedly attacked olive pickers yesterday, security camera footage shows people identified as settlers running through an olive grove just outside a Palestinian home.

مشهد يوثق هجوم مليشيات المستوطنين على منزل قي منطقة "الظهرة" ببلدة بيتا جنوب نابلس صباح اليوم pic.twitter.com/0klfnBoG2Z

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) October 3, 2026

Separate footage shows IDF soldiers and an armed settler rounding up Palestinians in the olive grove, with several of the Palestinians seen sitting in a row as troops stand guard.

???? متابعة | مستـ.ـوطنون بحماية قوات الاحتـ.ـلال يهاجمون المزارعين بجبل قماص في قرية بيتا في نابلس. pic.twitter.com/2B0vSzCsiU

— شبكة يافا الإخبارية (@yaffa_ps) October 3, 2026

Meanwhile, according to WAFA, settlers raided an olive grove in Burin and stole Palestinians’ produce and equipment. Troops who arrived on the area reportedly fired tear gas. The Red Crescent says it treated three people who inhaled tear gas fired by the IDF.

The annual olive harvest season, which begins this month in the West Bank, has seen an uptick in attacks by settlers against Palestinians in recent years.

Palestinians are barred from harvesting olives in some areas of the West Bank, free to do so in other areas, and required to receive prior authorization from Israel’s Civil Administration in others. It’s not immediately clear which restrictions applied to the olive groves in the incidents reported this morning.

Nurit Yohanan contributed to this report.