Settlers assault farmers, attack vehicles in Nablus

Israeli settlers on Thursday attacked several farmers in the Nablus district, a Palestinian Authority official said. Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the Northern West Bank, told Ma\'an that a group of settlers assaulted Palestinian farmers who were harvesting olives in the Nablus village of Burin. One farmer suffered severe bruising as a result of the attack. Meanwhile, settlers hurled rocks at Palestinian cars near the Huwwara military checkpoint South of Nablus, damaging several vehicles. The settlers also assaulted an Israeli journalist in the area, Daghlas said. On Wednesday, armed settlers prevented farmers in the Bethlehem village of Tuqu from reaching their land to harvest olives. A day earlier settlers destroyed over 53 trees in Kafr Laqif village West of Qalqiliya. According to a 2012 report on Israeli settler violence released by the Palestine Center, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, every year the olive harvest period sees the highest peak in attacks on Palestinian civilians and property. In 2012, settlers damaged or destroyed over 7,500 olive trees between January and October, according to OCHA. The olive industry supports of the livelihoods of roughly 80,000 families in the occupied West Bank.