RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL

Israeli forces on Saturday opened fire and launched stun and tear gas grenades at Palestinian farmers in the village of Kobar, north of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, as they tried to access their land for the olive harvest.

Several farmers from Kobar attempted to reach their groves in the village’s western area when soldiers fired at them, forcing them to retreat, according to an Anadolu correspondent. No injuries were reported.

“The (Israeli) occupation army prevented farmers from reaching their lands west of the village, particularly in the Qanater and Daak areas, and opened fire at them without causing injuries,” farmer Fahd Abu al-Hajj told Anadolu.

Farmers went to their lands under a ruling from Israel’s Supreme Court allowing them to harvest olives in that area, which the army had previously closed off, he added.

According to Abu al-Hajj, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have for years barred Palestinians from entering their lands near the illegal outpost established close to the settlement of Halamish, built on lands belonging to Kobar and neighboring villages.

In a separate incident on the same day, illegal armed settlers attacked olive pickers in the town of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah, Palestine’s official news agency WAFA said.

A group of illegal settlers assaulted a family while they were harvesting olives in the al-Dilja area east of the town, smashed the windows of their vehicle, and tried to expel them from the land before the family confronted them and forced them to leave, the agency added.

Palestinian farmers face regular attacks by Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers during the annual olive harvest, often preventing them from accessing their groves.

The Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission described this year’s harvest as “the most dangerous in decades,” saying farmers face daily assaults with no protection.

According to the commission, attacks by illegal Israeli settlers and the army have uprooted, broken, or damaged 48,728 trees, including 37,237 olive trees. Settlers have carried out 7,154 attacks against Palestinians and their property across the West Bank during the two years of the war, killing 33 Palestinians and displacing 33 Bedouin communities.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, leaving the enclave largely uninhabitable.