A-Nazlah a-Sharqiyah, Tulkarm District: Settlers and soldiers prevented farmers from harvesting their olives; soldiers allowed the settlers to harvest and steal olives

Over the course of October 2025, farmers from the village of a-Nazlah a-Sharqiyah in Tulkarm District tried to access their farmland to harvest olives on four different days, but were denied access by settlers and soldiers. The soldiers even allowed the settlers to harvest olive trees belonging to village residents.

In 2024, the outpost of Havat Eretz Kama was established a few hundred meters from the farmers’ land, and several months later, the military installed an iron gate on the road leading from the village to the farmers’ land, blocking their access.

Wael Kattaneh, 54, a father of seven and head of the a-Nazlah a-Sharqiyah village council, described what happened in a testimony he gave on 19 October 2025 to B’Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi:

When I tried to reach my land on Sunday morning, 12 October 2025, I was shocked to find a group of about seven to nine settlers there, including one settler woman, picking the olives from our land. I saw them picking the olives, breaking branches and stealing the crop. When I tried to move toward them to stop them from stealing the olives, I was confronted by four soldiers and the outpost guard, who prevented me from approaching. They threatened me with their weapons, drove me away from the area and forced me to go back to the village, even though they knew full well that I am the landowner.

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I was forced out of my land at gunpoint, but I managed to document the settlers from a distance to prove that they were stealing the olive crop from our land and from the nearby plots. The settlers continued harvesting on our land for three consecutive days, without the soldiers preventing it, even though I contacted the Palestinian DCO offices in Tulkarm and Jenin and asked them to remove them and stop the theft. The Israeli side did not respond to my request and to this day refuses to coordinate village farmers’ access to their land.

After access was denied, we turned to the governor of Tulkarm and asked him to organize an action that would help us reach our land and harvest the olives. And so, on 15 October 2025, about 250 volunteers were mobilized and arrived in the morning at the plots near the outpost, but four military jeeps and about 15 settlers were waiting for us near the iron gate that blocks vehicular access to our land. The military forces began forcibly dispersing the volunteers and farmers with tear gas and live gunfire and prevented us from reaching our land.

We, the landowners, tried again to reach our land on Friday and Saturday, 17 and 18 October 2025, but the settlers and soldiers again prevented us from reaching the plots.