A Palestinian man was killed and 16 others sustained injuries during an assault by Israeli settlers in the northern occupied West Bank, regional health authorities announced Wednesday. The violence erupted as local farmers gathered to harvest olives on agricultural tracts outside the village of Burqa, situated northwest of Nablus. Official Palestinian reports stated that the assailants conducted the raid under the active protection of Israeli military forces.
The deceased was identified as 44-year-old Ali Hassan Yasser al-Bazzari.
Al-Bazzari, a resident of Burqa, suffered fatal trauma when the attackers moved into the farmland west of Nablus. Medical officials from the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed the fatality shortly after emergency crews responded to the scene. The timing coincided with the annual olive harvest, a vital economic period that regularly witnesses severe confrontations across rural districts.
Several victims, including an injured woman, required urgent hospitalization.
Local correspondents reporting for the Palestinian Wafa news agency noted that casualties were transferred to medical facilities across Nablus and neighboring Tulkarem for emergency treatment. Witnesses indicated that farmers were forced to flee under direct physical threat as the assault escalated throughout the grove perimeter.
The incident underscores intensifying security pressures confronting agricultural communities attempting to access their ancestral lands.
