Brought to tears as he recalled Israeli settlers hitting his cherished olive trees with sticks and taking off with the olives, Palestinian Ahmed Salem said he feared being attacked if he tried to intervene.

Settlers have intimidated Palestinians harvesting their olives in the occupied West Bank for decades, but this year, not only has violence increased sharply, theft has been widespread, according to Palestinians, Israeli rights groups and the UN.

The settlers dumped Salem's olives into sacks and then drove them to a nearby Israeli settler outpost to be pressed into olive oil, the 50-year-old Palestinian told Reuters of the incident around two weeks ago near his village al-Lubban al-Gharbi.

"You are seeing something that belongs to you, being taken, and at the same time you're restricted, you can't do anything, you can't speak, you can't even go out and repel. This is an attack on your olive trees, you can't even complain, you don't have a side to complain to," he said.

The couple living in the outpost, whose olive press settlers have urged Israelis to use for West Bank olives, declined multiple Reuters requests for comment, while the Yesha Council, which oversees Israeli settlements in the West Bank, did not immediately respond.

In the northern West Bank near Sebastia national park Israeli settlers were seen stealing olives.

Reuters verified the location from the road layout, trees, utility poles and shape of the mountains which matched topography mapping and satellite imagery. Coordinates: 32.282133900036406, 35.18004578041838. The date when the videos were filmed could not be independently verified; however, the source confirmed the videos were filmed on October 19. No older versions found posted online before October 19.

The attacks have accelerated ahead of an Israeli election next week that opinion polls show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his pro-settler coalition could lose to opponents who have taken a more critical stance against settler violence.

The olive harvest starts with the onset of cooler weather, allowing Palestinian families to gather in the lush, terraced groves that they have groomed for generations.

With the establishment of hundreds of small settler outposts under Netanyahu's government since 2022, the military has increasingly restricted Palestinian access to areas nearby, including many olive groves.

"However, we are already seeing hundreds of incidents, violent incidents and theft incidents of, settlers. Who comes and, take away, steal the fruit from the trees. They come in 25% of the cases with soldiers who come to protect them and to allow them in the system to actually commit a crime, to violate, the rights of the Palestinians," said Ziv Stahl, executive director of Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

Even when Palestinians can access their trees, it is not without risk. Yesh Din on Wednesday reported 125 physical attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters over the 24 days since the season began and 168 incidents of crop theft, with Israeli military forces present in at least a quarter of cases.

An Israeli military official said it takes acts of violence, criminal activity and attempts to undermine security very seriously. The official did not refer to settlers or comment on the reports of olive theft in the presence of the Israeli military, which has separately uprooted trees with excavators, citing what it said was a need to prevent Palestinian attacks.

The removal of Palestinians' olives has met with widely differing responses from Israeli rabbis.

"From my perspective, I define it as theft or robbery, and it is forbidden," said Zev Weitman, the rabbi for the Alon Shvut settlement south of Bethlehem.

Prominent Orthodox rabbi Dov Lior said settlers should harvest across the West Bank, asserting in an open letter that Palestinians had no ownership rights to the land.

Hundreds of acres of the land around Salem's village, al-Lubban al-Gharbi, including olive groves, were fenced off and seized between 2023 and 2026 by Avichai Farm, an Israeli settler outpost built on a nearby hill.

Salem said villagers have seen settlers harvest olives from the seized land and take them to the outpost's olive press.

At the start of the olive harvest, settlers posted on social media calling on Israelis to harvest West Bank olives and bring them to Avichai Farm's press.

The press at Avichai Farm advertises "premium products produced by Avichai Farm" with olive oil at about $20 a bottle via a website run by the Farms Association, a settler group that Reuters has reported receives significant financial support from the Israeli government, which says the aim is to promote peace.

The Farms Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment and the couple who live on the farm with their children declined to be interviewed by a Reuters reporter who approached the area on Sunday.

Al-Lubban al-Gharbi villagers and other Palestinians who have lost land to settler expansion say the harvesting of olives from trees in groves seized from Palestinian land constitutes theft.

UN bodies and most countries deem Israel's settlements on land occupied in war illegal under international law regarding military occupations. Israel rejects this, viewing the territory as disputed rather than occupied.

During this year's olive harvest, Palestinian authorities say three Palestinians have been killed in daily militant settler attacks, which have also injured several journalists, European diplomats and a French mayor.

Israel, which has considered the idea of annexation, said it is investigating some of the incidents.

In southern West Bank city of Hebron video obtained by Reuters showed settlers stealing olives and the location and the date when the videos were filmed has been confirmed from the original file metadata. The buildings, olive trees, terrain and telecommunications tower matched satellite imagery. The hills matched the topography mapping of the area. Coordinates: 31.5247, 35.1031

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

DEIR IBZI, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 9, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all)

1. ISRAELI SOLDIER DISPERSING PALESTINIANS AND SETTLERS FOLLOWING CONFRONTATION DURING OLIVE HARVEST

2. ISRAELI FORCES AT SCENE

NEAR SEBASTIA NATIONAL PARK, WEST BANK (RELEASED OCTOBER 19, 2026) (ORIGINALLY FILMED IN PORTRAIT) (KARIM HAJJA - No Resales / No Archive / Must on-screen courtesy KARIM HAJJA)

3. VARIOUS OF ISRAELI MILITANT SETTLER PICKING OLIVES FROM LAND OWNED BY PALESTINIAN / BEATING ON TREES WITH STICK / FIXING SHEET USED TO COLLECT OLIVES

AL-LUBBAN AL-GHARBI, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 13, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

4. VARIOUS OF DRIVING SHOT TOWARDS ISRAELI AVICHAI FARM WHERE OLIVE PRESS BUILT BY SETTLERS IS

5. VIEW OF OLIVES TREES AT AL-LUBBAN AL-GHARBI VILLAGE

6. FARM

7. VIEW OF OUTPOST

8. VARIOUS OF VIEWS OF OLIVE PRESS BUILT BY SETTLERS

9. OLIVE TREES

10. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MAYOR OF AL-LUBBAN AL-GHARBI FARMER, AHMED SALEM, SAYING:

"You are seeing something that belongs to you, being taken, and at the same time you're restricted, you can't do anything, you can't speak, you can't even go out and repel. This is an attack on your olive trees, you can't even complain, you don't have a side to complain to."

DEIR ABU MASH’AL, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 10, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all)

11. ISRAELI FORCES FIRING TEAR GAS AND STUN GRENADES TOWARDS PALESTINIANS HARVESTING OLIVES / MAN RUNNING / SMOKE BILLOWING / AUDIO OF STUN GRENADES

12. SMOKE BILLOWING AFTER ISRAELI FORCES FIRE TEAR GAS AND STUN GRENADES TOWARDS PALESTINIANS / PEOPLE RUNNING

13. ISRAELI SOLDIER SHOUTING AT JOURNALISTS AND CLOSING VEHICLE DOOR

ALON SHVUT SETTLEMENT, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 15, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

14. ALON SHVUT SETTLEMENT RABBI, ZEV WEITMAN, READING

15. WEITMAN HOLDING BOOK

16. (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ALON SHVUT SETTLEMENT RABBI, ZEV WEITMAN, SAYING:

"I know there are many people here who go and harvest olives belonging to Arabs whose groves are around the settlements. Those who do this believe it helps protect the settlements and limits expansion by Palestinians, and that is why they do it."

17. RABBI ZEV WEITMAN SITTING

18. (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) THE RABBI FOR THE SETTLEMENT ALON SHVUT, RABBI ZEV WEITMAN, SAYING:

"From my perspective, I define it as theft or robbery, and it is forbidden, because I still think that these belong to Palestinians who grow them."

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (OCTOBER 15, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

19. ZIV STAHL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ISRAELI HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION YESH DIN IN OFFICE

20. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ISRAELI HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION YESH DIN, ZIV STAHL, SAYING:

"However, we are already seeing hundreds of incidents, violent incidents and theft incidents of, settlers. Who comes and, take away, steal the fruit from the trees. They come in 25% of the cases with soldiers who come to protect them and to allow them in the system to actually commit a crime, to violate, the rights of the Palestinians."

20. SIGN READING YESH DIN

21. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ISRAELI HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION YESH DIN, ZIV STAHL, SAYING:

"When we look at this combination of lack of law enforcement, both by the military and the police and the fact that, the state allows for, settlers to come and attack harvesters and to disturb the harvest. We have to ask ourselves why why this is happening. And we believe this is a part of a bigger system, intentional system that is meant to push away Palestinians away from their lands and not to allow the harvest both because it harms them economically. They cannot live off the land. And and second of all, because this is part of a system to push them away altogether from the lands so they can or might lose the rights on the land, eventually leading to the takeover of Israel over these lands."

ITAMAR SETTLEMENT, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 13, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

22. VARIOUS OF ENTRANCE OF ITAMAR SETTLEMENT

23. ISRAELI SETTLER MOSHE GOLDSMITH, WORKS IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND A NON PROFIT AT SETTLEMENT

24. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI SETTLER MOSHE GOLDSMITH, SAYING:

"As far as the tension over the olive harvest, with the Arab neighbours, that it's really, again, like unfortunately, the situation of October 7th since October 7th, about the genocide. About the Israeli army, making up stories that Israel is committing genocide. It's the same kind of thing. They they tried to blow up. The media will take a certain event, and they tried to blow it up and make it seem this is, you know, huge conflict, of the, Arabs against the Jewish residents of this area over the olive pick. And it's not the case."

25. GOLDSMITH'S EYES

26. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI SETTLER MOSHE GOLDSMITH, SAYING:

"But it's more of a security concern. And we have we've seen before many, many terrorist attacks have been committed as a result of, those who got close to the borders of communities in Jewish communities. And they've been able to, they were caught in the past by the army taking pictures and learning how the communities, you know, work and live. And then they're able to plan an attack. So that's really the only reason that there is a tension around this issue. But it's become such a public media thing is that, oh, they're not letting the Arabs pick their olives."

BEITA, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 8, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all)

27. VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN FARMER WHOSE OLIVES WERE STOLEN BY ISRAELI SETTLERS, SAMER BANI SHAMSI, SITTING UNDER OLIVE TREE

28. OLIVES ON TREES

29. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN FARMER WHOSE OLIVES WERE STOLEN BY ISRAELI SETTLERS, SAMER BANI SHAMSI, SAYING:

“They come every day to steal the olives. They take whatever they need and steal the olives.

30. OLIVES ON TREES

31. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN FARMER WHOSE OLIVES WERE STOLEN BY ISRAELI SETTLERS, SAMER BANI SHAMSI, SAYING:

“They used to steal and they would be afraid, this year, they steal without fear because they have a state and a powerful force backing them. The police and the army are with them. When I call the police, they come and beat me.”

32. BARBED WIRE INSTALLED AROUND BANI SHAMSI'S HOUSE TO PROTECT IT FROM SETTLER ATTACKS

33. ISRAELI OUTPOST SEEN FROM BEITA

34. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN FARMER WHOSE OLIVES WERE STOLEN BY ISRAELI SETTLERS, SAMER BANI SHAMSI, SAYING:

“It is infuriating. It's years of hard work. We work hard to grow them and take care of the olives, and we wait for the olives to pick them, only for the olives to be stolen in the end. It is so infuriating.”

BEITA, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 9, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

35. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN OLIVE GROVES

36. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FARMER ADLA QASSEM, SAYING:

"They attacked us and forced the people to leave, I don't know where they are now, they came back."

37. FARMER CARRYING LADDER

38. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FARMER ADLA QASSEM, SAYING:SAYING:

"Even if one tree remains, I don't want to leave it."

39. VARIOUS OF ISRAELI OUTPOST ON HILLTOP

HEBRON, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 10, 2026) (ORIGINALLY FILMED IN PORTRAIT) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS - Access all)

40. VARIOUS OF ISRAELI SETTLERS STEALING OLIVES FROM PALESTINIAN FIELD

41. MEMBER OF ISRAELI FORCES AT SCENE / PALESTINIAN MAN SAYING (English):

"Why? Give me my lemon back. Why, (Hebrew): put down my phone? He's stealing my lemon and olive trees. And (Hebrew): you are asking me to put down my phone."

42. ARMY AND SETTLERS LEAVING / PALESTINIAN MAN:

"Respect your army uniform, you let them steal, respect your army uniform, no army in the world does what you do. You protect the thieves. who steal olives, and steal lemon."/ ARMY LEAVING