Politics
Settler violence disrupts West Bank olive harvest
The scene shocked many and highlighted the violence of this year’s olive harvest in the Israeli-occupied West Bank: a young masked man clubs an older Palestinian woman picking olives, who then collapses on the ground.
The incident during an attack by Israeli settlers, filmed by an American journalist, took place in the town of Turmus Ayya near Ramallah, a hotspot of violence this year.
“Everybody was fleeing because the settlers attacked suddenly, maybe 100 of them,” witness Yasser Alkam told AFP, adding that one Swedish activist also had his arm and leg broken by settlers.
Alkam, a Turmus Ayya city official, said that the woman, 55-year-old Um Saleh Abu Aliya, was struck as she was waiting for her son to drive her away from a mob of settlers.
“Fighting back would only bring more violence, sometimes with the army’s backing,” lamented Nael al-Qouq, a Turmus Ayya farmer who was prevented from reaching his olive trees that same day.
Expanded settlements
Not far from the scene, an Israeli flag flapped in the wind at a settlement outpost, illegal even under Israeli law.
The army eventually arrived in Turmus Ayya and dispersed the crowd with tear gas, an AFP journalist witnessed.
But not before the youths who descended on the village burned at least two cars.
The head of the West Bank’s Israeli police, Moshe Pinchi, told his district commanders to find the man who attacked Abu Aliya, according to a leaked WhatsApp message reported by Israeli media.
The Israeli army told AFP that it “works in coordination with the Israel Police to enforce the law concerning Israelis involved in such incidents”.
But Turmus Ayya is far from an isolated case, and AFP journalists have witnessed at least six different instances of Palestinians being denied access to their land, attacked by settlers, or being victims of vandalism during the 2025 olive harvest.
Clashes in rural areas reached new heights this year, prompted by ever-expanding Israeli settlements and a growing number of settlers — not all of whom engage in violence against Palestinians.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
All settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
‘Uprooted’
Near Turmus Ayya, in the village of Al-Mughayyir, one villager was prevented from harvesting altogether.
“I own ten dunams (one hectare) of olives. All I have left are the olive trees in the garden of the house … They uprooted it all,” Abdul Latif Abu Aliya, 55, told AFP.
Abu Aliya’s land borders a road on the other side of which three trailers make up a recently-installed settlement outpost.
After a settler was injured during an altercation near Abu Aliya’s house, an army order called for the trees his father and grandfather planted to be uprooted.
Bulldozers then pushed mounds of soil and roots halfway up the field and 100 metres from the family house, making a barrier that Abu Aliya and his family do not cross for fear of being attacked by settlers.
Faced with unprecedented violence during this year’s olive season, the Palestinian Authority’s agriculture minister called for the international community to protect farmers and pickers.
“It’s the worst season in the last 60 years,” Agriculture Minister Rizq Salimia told journalists, adding that this year’s crop was already bad due to poor climate.
Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN’s Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories, condemned “severe attacks” during this year’s harvest and deplored “dangerous levels of impunity” for perpetrators.
The annual harvest, once a peaceful gathering for the occupied West Bank’s families, has in recent years turned into a series of increasingly violent confrontations involving Israeli settlers, troops, Palestinian harvesters and foreign activists.
Identity marker
The season began in October and will last until mid-November, as Palestinians across the West Bank harvest olives from trees they see as deeply connected to their national identity.
The West Bank boasts over eight million olive trees for three million Palestinians, according to the agriculture ministry’s 2021 census.
Every autumn, Palestinians farmers, but also city folk whose families own a few trees, head out into the fields to pick olives, mostly by hand.
The UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that 27 West Bank villages were affected by harvest-related attacks in the week of October 7 to 13 alone.
“The incidents included attacks on harvesters, theft of crops and harvesting equipment, and vandalism of olive trees, resulting in casualties, property damage, or both,” OCHA said.
US President Donald Trump described Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir as a “highly respected general” while reiterating claims that he helped prevent a war between Pakistan and India.
“We stopped a potential nuclear war between Pakistan and India,” reiterated Trump while responding to a question during an event in Florida alongside Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan on Monday.
He went on to say that “highly respected general […] he is a field marshal” and also the prime minister of Pakistan credited him with saving 10 million lives by stopping the war.
“You know, eight planes were shot down [during the Pakistan-India war]. That war was going to rage,” Trump said.
The US president claimed that he has stopped eight wars so far.
He made these remarks while addressing a press conference in Florida to unveil his plans for a new “Trump class” of battleships, marking the start of an expanded naval buildup.
Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for easing tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, which have fought three wars since independence and remain locked in a dispute over Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
In May, Pakistan and India engaged in a military showdown, the worst between the old foes in decades, which was sparked by a terrorist attack on tourists in IIOJK’s Pahalgam area, which New Delhi said was backed by Pakistan.
Islamabad denied involvement in the Kashmir attack, which killed 26 men and was the worst assault on civilians in India since the Mumbai attacks in 2008.
After the incident, India killed several innocent civilians in unprovoked attacks on Pakistan for three days before the Pakistan Armed Forces retaliated in defence with the successful Operation Bunyanum Marsoos.
Pakistan downed seven IAF fighter jets, including three Rafale, and dozens of drones. After at least 87 hours, the war between the two nuclear-armed nations ended on May 10 with a ceasefire agreement brokered by the US.
US-Pakistan ties have warmed under Trump after Washington had for years viewed Pakistan’s rival India as a counter to China’s influence in Asia.
Following the brief conflict between Pakistan and India, the US president held a rare one-on-one meeting with Field Marshal Munir over lunch at the White House Cabinet Room in June, where he thanked the army chief to thank him for ending the war with India.
In September, Trump met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and COAS Munir at the Oval Office.
Ahead of the Oval meeting, which lasted for more than an hour, the US president, while speaking to the media, called PM Shehbaz and Field Marshal Munir “great” people.
Later, Trump showered praises on the Pakistani army chief once again, calling him a “great fighter” while speaking at a luncheon during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, in October.
Trump commended PM Shehbaz and COAS Munir’s efforts in promoting regional stability.
“I’m doing a trade deal with India, and I have great respect and love for Prime Minister Modi. We have a great relationship,” he said.
“Likewise, the Prime Minister of Pakistan is a great guy. They have a Field Marshal. You know why he’s a Field Marshal? He’s a great fighter. And so I know them all.
“I’m reading that seven planes were shot down. These are two nuclear nations. And they’re really going at it,” he added.
The Pakistan-India conflict eventually ended via a US-brokered ceasefire for which Islamabad has credited President Trump, while also nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Since then, Islamabad and Washington have been engaged with each other in high-level interactions between both civil and military leadership and have also finalised a much-hyped trade deal, reflecting improving relations between the two countries.
President Trump on Monday announced plans for a new “Trump class” of battleships, marking the start of an expanded naval buildup and signalling increased scrutiny of defence contractors over production delays and cost overruns.
The announcement represents the latest example of the president rebranding an aspect of the federal government in his image. Trump – who has previously criticised the appearance of US warships – will be personally involved in the designs.
He said the ships will weigh more than 30,000 tons, larger than current destroyers, and be equipped with the latest technology, including artificial intelligence and directed energy lasers.
“We haven’t built a battleship since 1994. These cutting-edge vessels will be some of the most lethal surface warfare ships… other than our submarines,” Trump said.
Some US officials have warned that a failure to build new battleships in recent years has handed an advantage to economic and military rival China. Trump downplayed China’s influence on the decision, saying the expansion was “a counter to everybody.”
He said the naval expansion would also be paired with renewed pressure on defence contractors to speed up production and rein in costs. He said he will meet with major defence firms next week to address delays and overruns, and to examine whether executive compensation, stock buybacks and dividends are contributing to missed production targets.
“We don’t want to have executives making $50 million a year, issuing big dividends to everybody, and also doing buybacks” while production of F-35s and other jets languishes, Trump said.
Reuters reported last week that the administration was planning an executive order to limit dividends, buybacks and executive pay for defence contractors whose projects are over-budget and delayed.
Trump and the Pentagon have been complaining about the expensive, slow-moving and entrenched nature of the defence industry, promising dramatic changes that would make the production of war equipment more nimble.
- Moscow, Caracas condemn US actions as int’l law violations.
- UNSC to discuss rising US-Venezuela tensions on Tuesday.
- Washington accuses Venezuela of funding criminal activities.
Russia on Monday expressed “full support” for Venezuela as the South American country confronts a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers by US forces deployed in the Caribbean.
The pledge from Moscow, itself embroiled in the war in Ukraine, came on the eve of a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Tuesday to discuss the mounting crisis between Caracas and Washington.
In a phone call, the foreign ministers of the allied nations blasted the US actions, which have included strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats and more recently, the seizure of two oil tankers.
A third ship was being pursued, a US official told AFP on Sunday.
“The ministers expressed their deep concern over the escalation of Washington’s actions in the Caribbean Sea, which could have serious consequences for the region and threaten international shipping,” the Russian foreign ministry said of the call between Sergei Lavrov and Venezuelan counterpart Yvan Gil.
“The Russian side reaffirmed its full support for and solidarity with the Venezuelan leadership and people in the current context,” it added in a statement.
US forces have since September launched strikes on boats that Washington claims, without providing evidence, were trafficking drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.
More than 100 people have been killed — some of them fishermen, according to their families and governments.
US President Donald Trump on December 16 also announced a blockade of “sanctioned oil vessels” sailing to and from Venezuela.
Trump claims Caracas under President Nicolas Maduro is using oil money to finance “drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping.”
He has also accused Venezuela of taking “all of our oil” — in an apparent reference to the country’s nationalisation of the petroleum sector, and said: “we want it back.”
Caracas, in turn, fears Washington is seeking regime change, and has accused Washington of “international piracy.”
Moscow’s statement said Lavrov and Gil agreed in their call to “coordinate their actions on the international stage, particularly at the UN, in order to ensure respect for state sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs.”
Russia and China, another Venezuela ally, backed Caracas’s request for a UNSC meeting to discuss what it called “the ongoing US aggression.”
Russia’s ‘hands full’
On Telegram, Venezuela’s Gil said he and Lavrov had discussed “the aggressions and flagrant violations of international law being perpetrated in the Caribbean: attacks on vessels, extrajudicial executions, and illicit acts of piracy carried out by the United States government.”
Gil said Lavrov had affirmed Moscow’s “full support in the face of hostilities against our country.”
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio brushed aside Moscow’s stated support for Caracas.
Washington, he said, was “not concerned about an escalation with Russia with regards to Venezuela” as “they have their hands full in Ukraine.”
US-Russia relations have soured in recent weeks as Trump has voiced frustration with Moscow over the lack of a resolution to the Ukraine war.
Gil on Monday also read a letter on state TV, signed by Maduro and addressed to UN member nations, warning the US blockade “will affect the supply of oil and energy” globally.
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