Killing of Woman Harvester Underscores 'War-Like' Israeli Assault on West Bank Olive Growers

The killing of a 59-year-old woman who eyewitnesses said was shot in the back by a member of the Israel Defense Forces while she was harvesting olives on her land in the West Bank on Thursday highlighted what one United Nations official called a "war-like" assault by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the illegally occupied Palestinian territory.

Hanan Abu Salameh was working with relatives in her family's olive grove in the village of Faqqua, located east of Jenin in the northern West Bank, when IDF soldiers posted on the nearby separation barrier along the Israeli border opened fire on them, Faris Abu Salameh, the slain woman's son, toldMiddle East Eye.

Abu Salameh—who saw his mother get shot—said his family and other villagers had permission from Israeli occupation authorities to harvest olives on their lands if they stayed at least 100 meters (328 feet) from the wall.

"We were much further than that from the wall," he said. "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."

The IDF said Friday that it has suspended a deputy commander of the battalion in which the soldier who allegedly shot Abu Salameh served.

"An investigation has been opened by the military police investigating the incident," the IDF said in a statement. "The commander of the force at the time of the incident has been suspended from her position until the end of the investigations."

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that it has received reports that settlers have carried out 32 attacks against Palestinians and their property, including farms, this month alone. The agency also said that about 600 olive trees—which take 10 years or more to reach maturity—have been destroyed, stolen, or vandalized by Israeli settler-colonists.

"It is, frankly, very concerning that it's not only attacks on people, but it's attacks on their olive groves as well," OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said at a Geneva press conference on Friday. "The olive harvest is an economic lifeline for tens of thousands of Palestinian families in the West Bank."

According to the Palestinian Farmers' Union, olives are the number one agricultural product in the West Bank. Between a quarter and one-third of the West Bank's population is estimated to work with olive trees and associated products, including oil and soap. Israeli occupation forces have severely and systematically restricted Palestinians' access to their own land, causing serious economic losses.

"Israeli forces have been using lethal, war-like tactics in the West Bank, raising serious concerns over excessive use of force and deepening people's humanitarian needs," Laerke added.

Israeli attacks on olive farmers began on the very first day of this year's harvest season earlier this month, when dozens of masked settlers wounded at least 11 Palestinians including women and children. Settlers including members of the violent extremist group Hilltop Youth have also stolen land from Palestinians in the West Bank.

The United States and other nations have imposed sanctions on a handful of the most violent Israeli settlers after incidents including multiple deadly pogroms during which IDF troops have protected and sometimes joined the attackers.

However, the U.S. is also Israel's number one international backer, providing the key Mideast ally with tens of billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover including vetoes of multiple U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolutions.

This, even as Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its conduct in a war of annihilation that has left more than 150,000 Palestinians in Gaza dead, maimed, or missing and millions more forcibly displaced, homeless, starved, and sickened.

In the West Bank, more than 750 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more wounded by Israeli soldiers and settlers since last October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. During that same period, more than 40 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed by Palestinians resisting what David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli prime minister, acknowledged in the 1930s was the "usurpation" of their land by Jewish colonizers.

"The West Bank is Palestinian land," the California-based advocacy group Institute For Middle East Understanding (IMEU) said on social media Friday. "Israeli soldiers have no legal right to be there, yet they have relentlessly invaded Palestinian towns and cities, killing and displacing those who rightfully live there."

More than 700,000 Israelis live in over 140 settlements in the occupied West Bank. Under international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention, both Israel's 57-year occupation of Palestine and its settlements are illegal. In July, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion that Israel's occupation is an illegal form of apartheid that must end immediately.

"The Biden administration has a duty under U.S. and international law to stop arming Israel as it continues its violence across Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon," IMEU added. "Every weapon the U.S. provides enables Israel to kill more civilians and prolong this devastation."