Palestinian woman shot dead by Israeli troops while picking olives in West Bank

A 59-year-old Palestinian woman has been shot dead by Israeli forces while attending to her family’s olive grove in the north of the occupied West Bank.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Hanan Abdel Rahman Abu Salama “was killed by (Israeli) occupation bullets” in Faqoua village, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said medical teams had tried to resuscitate her as she was being transferred to hospital.

The incident happened as she was picking olives with other members of her family when soldiers stationed on the nearby separation wall opened fire, her son said.

“We had permission to pick the olives but despite that, they shot at us and killed my mother," said Faris Abu Salami, who was with his mother at the shooting site. 

The local council had negotiated permission from the Israeli army for the family and other villagers to pick olives on their lands providing they stayed at least 100 meters from the wall.

 “We were much further than that from the wall. All of a sudden they started shooting randomly. We started collecting our things to leave and moved away. My father waved his white hat in the air hoping they would stop. They shot her in the back as we were fleeing the shooting.”

Barakat al-Omari, the mayor of Faqqua, confirmed that the residents had been more than 150 meters from the wall when they were shot at.

UN experts on Wednesday said that Palestinian farmers in the West Bank were facing “the most dangerous olive season ever.”

This year’s olive harvest season in the West Bank has seen Palestinians subjected to repeated attacks by settlers and Israeli forces, with trees set on fire and damaged, crops stolen, and farmers prevented from reaching their lands or targeted while harvesting the crop.

Israeli settlers spray Palestinian-owned olive trees with toxins

The settlers sneaked into the land in the town of Jaloud and sprayed 60 trees, ruining all of them.

Every year during the olive harvest season, violent settlers disrupt Palestinian farmers’ movement toward their fields and often damage or steal their crops. They also often set the trees on fire or cut them down.

Olives are a primary source of income for Palestinian farmers. The harvest season, which runs between October and November, is a lifeline for 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families in the West Bank.

According to United Nations data, virtually half of the Palestinian agricultural land is planted with an estimated 10 million olive trees in the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.

Olive harvests have also been the site of perennial clashes between farmers and encroaching extremist Israeli settlers for decades.

Violence by Israeli settlers escorted by Tel Aviv regime forces has soared in recent months across the occupied territories.

With all eyes on Gaza, Israel quietly ups its brutal aggression in West Bank

Tension hangs in the air in an occupied West Bank village nestled amid rolling hills and olive groves. Out of nowhere, a deafening roar of helicopter blades resonates there, exacerbating tensions.

Earlier this month, more than 50 armed settlers attacked a Palestinian family harvesting olives in the village of al-Lubban al-Gharbi, northwest of Ramallah.

Since the Israeli aggression in the besieged Gaza Strip began on October 7, 2023, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 738 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

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