Israeli settlers attack olive pickers in the West Bank.

Israeli settlers attacked olive pickers on Wednesday in the town of Qusra in the northern occupied West Bank.

Eyewitnesses said that a group of settlers assaulted olive harvesters in the lands of Qusra, south of Nablus, under the protection of the Israeli army.

They added that stone-throwing clashes erupted between Palestinian citizens and the settlers, prompting the Israeli army to intervene to protect the settlers, using live ammunition and tear gas canisters.

The Israeli army forced Palestinian farmers to evacuate their lands, according to the witnesses.

Attacks by settlers typically increase at this time of year, coinciding with the start of the olive harvest season, which is a key crop that many farmers rely on for their livelihoods.

Palestinians say that the Israeli army and settlers intensify their crimes in the West Bank by assaulting citizens, destroying their properties, and displacing them, in service of expanding settlement construction.

Alongside the genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army and settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have killed at least 1,049 Palestinians and injured about 10,300, in addition to arresting more than 19,000, including 400 children, according to official Palestinian data.

For decades, Israel has occupied Palestine and lands in Syria and Lebanon, refusing to withdraw and establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the borders prior to the 1967 war.