Palestinian Farmers Harvest Olives Under Military Guard and Tear Gas in West Bank Village of al-Mughayyir
Palestinian families went to their olive groves in the village of al-Mughayyir in the occupied West Bank on Thursday under the guard of Israeli soldiers. They are allowed into their own groves on only a few days, and they had to gather what they could within that limited time.
Footage from the scene showed troops firing tear gas near the olive pickers, with smoke drifting through the trees. In the same footage, a boy was seen throwing a canister aside.
Al-Mughayyir lies north-east of Ramallah and is home to around 3,000 people. The village has some 4,300 hectares of land, yet residents say they can access barely 100 hectares of it.
Reaching their groves requires prior approval from the Israeli military. Access is restricted to a handful of days, is subject to age limits, and equipment is banned.
Villagers say such brief visits are not enough to maintain their trees, which need care throughout the year. As a result, apart from picking the crop in the few permitted days, the rest of the work in the groves remains unfinished.
The report also noted mounting pressure on al-Mughayyir from nearby Israeli settler outposts. Six residents have been killed in 2026, the village's eastern entrance has been closed by the army for more than two years, and around 12,000 olive trees were uprooted from its eastern plain in 2025.
The rise in settler attacks is not limited to this village. Across the West Bank, the United Nations has recorded 377 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage since September, the highest figure since records began in 2006.
According to the UN figures, those incidents left one Palestinian dead, more than 200 people injured and 3,850 trees damaged.
The olive harvest is a vital source of income for an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families. Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal under international law by most countries.
