Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters this week in the occupied West Bank, beating farmers and activists with clubs in an assault that left one woman hospitalized and reignited international alarm over escalating violence in the region.
The incident, which took place Sunday in the town of Turmus Ayya, was captured in multiple videos obtained by The Associated Press and The Independent. The footage shows masked men-some wearing tzitzit, the ritual fringed garment worn by observant Jews-charging through olive groves and striking people on the ground. One video shows a man repeatedly clubbing a woman who appears to lose consciousness after the first blow.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the victim as 55-year-old Afaf Abu Alia, locally known as Umm Saleh, and said she was hospitalized with serious head injuries. "Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency," Ajith Sunghay, head of the U.N. Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories, said 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."
Freelance journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who filmed the assault, said he and several farmers were surrounded by armed settlers as they attempted to leave the fields. "That's when the settlers just appear, they really came out of nowhere," Nathaniel told The Independent. "I'm running for my life at this point... and then from the car we see the woman standing there, and we honestly think he's going to run by her but then he clubs her. I see her knocked unconscious with the first strike, but then he hits her again after the first strike." He described it as "the single worst individual act of violence I've seen."
Israel's Channel 12 later reported that the head of the West Bank police force said the video of the attack "kept him up at night" and ordered officers to locate the suspect. However, both the Israeli police and military did not respond to AP requests for comment. The Israeli Defense Forces said only that "a report was received of disturbances that included vehicle arson and physical violence near the Shilo settlement," and that forces "rushed to the scene to disperse the disturbances."
Nathaniel disputed that account, saying no authorities appeared immediately after the assault. "They did not arrive at the scene," he said, adding that settlers set several cars ablaze as they fled. In one video, flames and smoke can be seen rising from torched vehicles near the olive groves.
The attack occurred in Turmus Ayya, a largely Palestinian-American town north of Ramallah that has faced repeated settler incursions. Violence intensified after Israeli forces killed 14-year-old Palestinian-American Amer Rabee in April, triggering ongoing protests and clashes.
The United Nations says settler violence across the West Bank has surged this year, with 757 attacks resulting in casualties or property damage in the first half of 2025-a 13% increase over last year. During the first two weeks of this year's olive harvest alone, more than 150 settler assaults were recorded, and over 700 olive trees were uprooted, broken, or poisoned, according to Muayyad Shaaban, who heads a Palestinian Authority office tracking settler attacks.
