The UN on Monday condemned Israeli settlers for carrying out 160 attacks against Palestinians over olive harvests, damaging property, and conducting demolitions that forcibly displaced 96 Palestinians, exactly a year since the ceasefire agreement was brokered.
Commenting on the impact of Israeli settler violence on the Palestinian farmers’ olive harvest, the experts stated:
The olive harvest is an essential source of food, income and livelihood for thousands of Palestinian families, and is deeply rooted in Palestinian cultural and agricultural heritage…Olive trees take years to mature and can sustain families for generations. Their destruction deprives families of far more than a single harvest: it undermines local food systems, cultural practices and ways of life, as well as the right to food and the food sovereignty of Palestinian communities.
The experts emphasized that increasing settler violence continues to strain the ongoing food insecurity crisis in Gaza, which has affected 1.4 million people and is projected to worsen after the UN Food Programme’s announcement of funding cuts which reduces food assistance in Gaza by around one-third. According to the Palestinian Information Center, military orders issued in September 2026 have required 84 acres of land to be cleared in the Jenin, Qabatiya, and Beit Rima areas. Execution of the orders range from immediate execution to 12-hour compliance periods.
In 2021, the Jerusalem-based human rights organization B’Tselem highlighted that Israeli authorities describe a “coordination mechanism” for Palestinian farmers. Under this system, the military informs farmers which of their lands are situated near settlements and on which specific days they are permitted to harvest their crops, and sends troops to protect them, although B’Tselem points out that this protection is largely symbolic with soldiers participating in violence against the farmers in ten separate incidents.
The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Council reported that the Israeli military has used the “state land” designation as a means to confiscate land through legal and administrative measures. Both groups reported that Israeli military has used “state land” designations as a means to establish a new colony, legalize an outpost, and expand existing colonies away from colonies throughout 2026. The rights organizations noted that once land has been designated as “state land”, farmers are unable to harvest olives on it.
Forced evacuations of people violates Article 49 of the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Convention prohibits “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power” regardless of the motive of the transfer.
In October 2026, Amnesty International warned that 1,400 Palestinians were killed in a year. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recently condemned new building demolitions by Israeli military forces that displaced 69 Palestinians.
