Documentation of Israel’s aggression against farmers and the agricultural sector from October 17-23, 2025
Olive trees are integral to Palestinian culture and economy. They also embody the principles of food sovereignty and, by extension, the right to self-determination as affirmed under international law. These legal frameworks recognize the right of peoples to freely shape their food systems, access their natural resources, and sustain themselves in alignment with their cultural traditions.
Israel’s settler-colonial regime persistently violates these rights throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories and across historic Palestine. This occurs through systematic land confiscation, movement restrictions, state-backed settler militia violence, and the deliberate destruction of agricultural infrastructure. In effect, the very foundation of Palestinian self-sufficiency is being dismantled. This ecocide is deliberate, functioning as a calculated mechanism of colonial erasure. Its most severe expression is witnessed in Gaza, where Israel destroyed more than 90% of Gaza’s agricultural assets over the past two years and harmed over 5,353 farmers in the occupied West Bank since the start of this year. Mass starvation has been weaponized as an instrument of domination.
Institutions must recognize that ecocide – the large-scale, mass destruction of the environment and ecosystems with the knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment – is an international crime. Their failure to recognize how Israel’s settler-colonial ecocide is an essential part of Israel’s project to eliminate Palestine reflects their active complicity and enabling of genocide and ecological destruction. With a few days till COP30, Palestinians demand that Palestine is recognized as the cornerstone in understanding the intersectionality between genocide, ecocide, militarism, and settler colonialism. What is unfolding in Gaza and across historic Palestine is a coordinated destruction of ecological systems, Indigenous land sovereignty, and the socio-environmental foundations of collective life; an attack that exposes the deep entanglement of colonial domination/violence and climate injustice.
While the de facto annexation of the West Bank has been ongoing since 1967, this transformation paves the path for a de jure annexation. On October 21, the Israeli Knesset voted on two separate but interconnected bills, both involving settler-colonial visions of our Palestinian lands: One to legally annex the Maale Adumim settlement and another to apply Israeli sovereignty to all illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank (voted on already in July). While the motion in July carried no legal weight, a month later, Israel announced the E1 plan, linking occupied East Jerusalem to the expanding Maale Adumim settlement in the occupied West Bank.
From the beginning of 2025 through mid-October, more than 5,353 farmers were affected by Israeli violations, marking a 17% increase compared with 2024. Total losses exceeded $70.3 million, including the burning and uprooting of trees, destruction of agricultural infrastructure, killing and theft of livestock, confiscation of tens of thousands of dunams of land, and preventing farmers from accessing them while allowing systematic settler grazing.
The UN human rights office (OHCHR) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has warned that violence by settler militias against Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest season has skyrocketed in scale and frequency, with the support and participation of the occupation army, always with impunity. Between 14 and 20 October, OCHA documented 49 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians that resulted in casualties, property damage, or both. More than 65 per cent of the attacks (32) were related to the ongoing olive harvest season, which officially started on 9 October, affecting Palestinians in 25 villages and towns.
Stop the Wall (STW) have documented more than 160 attacks by settler militias with the support of the occupation army against farmers since the start of the olive harvest. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have resorted to safety measures where they cage their houses like prisons, after being brutally and repeatedly attacked by settler militias. Nearly 200 foreign activists have arrived in the West Bank this year for the Zayoun2025 Campaign , with the aim of being present with Palestinians during the olive harvest. The occupation army forced foreign activists to leave the olive groves in Burin and Huwara upon their arrival at their accommodations, and on October 22, a number of 32 activists were arrested and deported in a single day, in an attempt to isolate Palestinians amidst the settler attacks they face.
The following are details of settler militia attacks with the support of the occupation army by governorate:
Ramallah Governorate:
The settler attacks were concentrated in the villages of Silwad, where settler militias prohibited farmers from accessing their lands. They assaulted five farmers with sticks and stole their equipment. The occupation army also confiscated an agricultural tractor for several hours, harassing farmers and expelling them from their lands.
In the villages of Turmus Ayya, Ras Karkar, Khirbet Abu Falah, al-Mughayyir, Deir Ammar, Kobar, Budrus, al-Taybeh, and Deir Nizam, settler militias prohibit farmers daily from accessing their lands. They burned vehicles belonging to farmers from al-Mughayyir, and brutally attacked an elderly Palestinian woman who was beaten on the head with batons, after which she was hospitalized.
In Umm Safa, settler militias raid the village daily at night and set fire to residents’ property, while the occupation army continues bulldozing Umm Safa’s lands to pave way for settler roads.
In Budrus, the occupation army has bulldozed lands adjacent to the Apartheid Wall. These lands belong to several farmers, who remain inaccessible to them to this day.
Tubas and Jordan Valley Governorate:
On October 19, occupation forces bulldozed the agricultural roads connecting Tamoun and Atouf (which was preceded by bulldozing on October 15) and closed all entrances to Atouf. They also sabotaged water pipelines belonging to farmers.
Settler militias fenced off farmers’ land in the Umm al-Quba area, an area estimated at 3,000 dunams, and plowed 300 dunams of land in al-Farisiya, also owned by farmers from the governorate.
Salfit Governorate:
The attacks in Salfit were concentrated in the villages of Farkha and Deir Ballut, where settler militias and the occupation army prohibited farmers from accessing their lands from October 15 until today.
Bethlehem Governorate:
Settler militias have repeatedly attacked the villages of Beit Fajjar and Nahalin, prohibited farmers from entering their lands and stole their olives.
Tulkarm Governorate:
Settler militias have repeatedly attacked the farmers in Ramin and Beit Lid, where they prohibited farmers from harvesting their olives and stole their crops.
Jerusalem Governorate:
Settler militias attacked Mikhmas and Al-Issawiya. On October 22, 2025, settlers cut down and destroyed 180 olive trees. They also demolished an agricultural room, an agricultural barn, and bulldozed a fence.
Jenin Governorate:
The occupation army prohibited farmers from accessing their lands in Kafr Ra’i and attacked farmers. Approximately 3,363 trees were not harvested in Araba, Al-Mariha, and Kafr Ra’i.
Qalqilya Governorate:
On October 22, 2025, the occupation army closed off all agricultural gates and farmers were prevented from accessing their lands behind the Apartheid Wall. Residents of Al-Jit were also prevented from accessing their lands near the settlement of Qedumim.
Nablus Governorate:
Settler militias attacked farmers in Beita, confiscated 4 ladders and 6 mattresses from residents and volunteers.
The occupation army seized 70 dunams of land in several Nablus villages, including from the villages of Qaryut, al-Lubban al-Sharqiya, and al-Sawiya, to expand Israeli settlements.
Hebron Governorate:
Settler militias with the support of the occupation army have repeatedly attacked Halhul, Yatta, Birin, and Beit Ummar:
- Prohibited access to land for cultivation
- Destroyed and broke grape trees
- Destroyed citrus seedlings
- Stole olives
- Harassed farmers
- Bulldozed 30 dunams of land planted with grapes and almonds
- Uprooted 60 olive trees in the Bawadi al-Khair and al-Alali areas, destroyed 20 additional trees, and bulldozed a 400-meter-long fence belonging to a farmer
- Expelled Palestinians from their lands in Khirbet Aqawis while they were harvesting olives.