United Nations: The olive season in the West Bank is witnessing the highest level of attacks.

Today, Saturday, settlers attacked Palestinians while they were harvesting olives in the village of Burin, south of Nablus in the West Bank, amid UN confirmations that the olive season has witnessed the highest level of attacks in five years.

The Palestinian news agency reported that a guard from the 'Yitzhar' settlement, accompanied by a number of settlers, attacked the Palestinians while they were picking olives from the land located between the village of Burin and the town of Hawara.

It added - citing sources - that the settlers assaulted several Palestinians, beating them and forcing them to leave, as well as scattering the olives they had collected.

For its part, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper - citing a security source - confirmed that the settlers' attacks in the West Bank have spiraled out of control, emphasizing that the violent attacks by the 'Hilltop Youth' settler group are escalating.

It pointed out that the field situation and documents show that the army usually does nothing to confront settlers' attacks in the West Bank.

According to a statement from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published yesterday, the olive season in the West Bank has seen the highest level of settler attacks in five years.

The office clarified that settlers carried out 126 attacks affecting 70 towns in the West Bank, and destroyed more than 4,000 olive trees and saplings.

It noted that settlers from new outposts imposed restrictions on access to olive fields in many locations in the West Bank.

It continued that 60 attacks by settlers on Palestinian citizens were recorded, resulting in 17 injuries and the destruction of 19 vehicles during the past week.

According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, the occupation army and settlers have carried out a total of 259 assaults against olive pickers since the season began in the first week of October, until the 28th of the same month.

The commission indicated - in a press statement issued last Tuesday - that its teams monitored 41 cases of assault by the occupation army and 218 cases by settlers.

It pointed out that these assaults ranged from violent physical attacks, arrest campaigns, movement restrictions and access denial, intimidation and harassment in all its forms, to gunfire.

The olive season is one of the most important agricultural seasons in Palestine, as thousands of families rely on it as a primary source of income and livelihood.

However, according to field estimates and data from the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture, the current season is the weakest in recent decades, with production not exceeding 15% of the normal rate.

These assaults fall within a broad Israeli escalation wave in the West Bank by the army and settlers during the years of extermination in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the martyrdom of 1,062 Palestinians and the injury of about 10,000 others, in addition to the arrest of more than 20,000 people, including 1,600 children.