NABLUS/TULKARM, West Bank / PNN — 

For Ali al-Bazari’s family, the olive harvest ended in grief. They bid farewell to the 44-year-old Palestinian father through tears, while his son was left asking a question no child should have to ask: Why was my father killed, and who will be held accountable?

Al-Bazari was killed and 14 others were wounded Wednesday in attacks by Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli forces, on Palestinian olive pickers in the northern occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Ali al-Bazari was killed and 14 others were wounded Wednesday in attacks by Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli forces, on Palestinian olive pickers in the northern occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials and the Palestinian Red Crescent. Medical teams were detained and ambulances were seized, preventing medics from reaching some of the wounded.

The Palestinian Red Crescent initially said in a brief statement that one person was killed and two others were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the Ramin Plain in the northern West Bank.

The organization later updated the toll, saying: “One martyr and 14 wounded by Israeli forces and settlers in the Ramin Plain, including four paramedics.”

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the victim as Ali Hassan al-Bazari, 44, saying he was killed in an attack by Israeli forces and settlers north of Nablus. Local sources said he was killed in the village of Burqa.

Several Palestinians were wounded Wednesday in attacks by settlers targeting olive pickers in Nablus and Tulkarm governorates in the northern occupied West Bank.

Before the death of one of the wounded was confirmed, the Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams had treated four people injured in a settler attack on Palestinian olive pickers in Ramin, in the Tulkarm governorate.

The Red Crescent said the wounded included an 81-year-old man, a 72-year-old woman and two 47-year-old men. All were taken to hospital, it said.

In Burqa, in the Nablus governorate, local sources said settlers attacked farmers while they were harvesting olives and opened live fire at them.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces detained its crews as they attempted to reach wounded people in Burqa and confiscated the keys to their ambulances and the teams’ communication equipment.

Settlers also attacked olive pickers in the village of Bazariya, with reports of additional injuries, according to local sources.

The attacks came as Palestinians began the annual olive harvest in the West Bank, a period that has frequently been marked by settler attacks and Israeli restrictions on farmers’ access to their land.

Since the start of this year’s olive harvest in early October, settler attacks and Israeli restrictions have intensified, including physical assaults, preventing farmers from reaching their fields, stealing crops and cutting down or damaging trees.

According to data from the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, settlers have carried out more than 14,742 attacks in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, since October 2023. The attacks have resulted in the deaths of 66 Palestinians, according to the commission.

Settler violence has also affected 147,111 trees through destruction, uprooting, burning and poisoning, including 100,485 olive trees, the commission said.