Palestine weekly: Violent disruptions from olive groves to Al-Aqsa Mosque

Political and religious actions by Israeli officials and settlers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound marked a focal point of this week’s escalation. On the eve of Yom Kippur, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inspected excavation tunnels underneath the compound and Old City, then joined settlers praying behind bulletproof glass at the Western Wall. The next morning, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered the mosque complex under heavy police protection while hundreds of settlers conducted religious rituals there; Jordan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the incursions as an attempt to spatially and temporally divide the holy site.

Across the West Bank, violence and coercive measures continued. Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian near the illegal Ganim settlement on Sept. 20 after alleging a vehicular attack; earlier that day a settler was killed near Halamish and authorities detained a suspect, Qadri Muhammad Samara, following a forceful hospital raid. In response to the killing near Halamish, Netanyahu ordered the demolition of Samara’s family home and a surge of forces into the West Bank, including sealing entrances to Ramallah and el-Bireh and conducting predawn arrests in Biddu, according to Wafa. Separately, President Isaac Herzog cleared the record of Elor Azaria, the soldier convicted in 2017 of manslaughter for shooting an incapacitated Palestinian in Hebron, a move opposed by Israel’s military chief of staff but supported by the defense minister.

Settler violence and property seizures also intensified ahead of the olive harvest. Reports document settlers cutting olive trees in communities including Yabad, Nilin and Khirbet Firasin near Jenin, and grazing sheep through Palestinian olive groves in Masafer Yatta. Field teams reported attacks and attempted occupations of structures in villages such as Burqa, where settlers returned after an initial assault and appeared to prepare an agricultural building for habitation. Demolitions and displacement continued as well: Israeli forces reportedly razed a community building in Deir Ballut and a two-story home in Masafer Yatta that sheltered eight people, mostly children, while settlers prevented the family from reinstalling a tent.

In Gaza the humanitarian and security situation worsened as infrastructure deteriorated amid ongoing strikes. A drone strike on Sept. 19 killed the eldest son of Gaza’s Health Ministry director-general as he exited a displacement tent; another strike that day hit a civilian vehicle in Sheikh Radwan market, killing one and wounding four, with the body reportedly burned beyond recognition after the vehicle burned for around half an hour before responders reached it. Separately, a Palestinian prisoner, Moataz al-Atrash, 21, from Hebron, died this week in Ofer Prison after more than 11 months in administrative detention, bringing the number of confirmed prisoner deaths since October 2023 to 92, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.

Other measures this week included closures of worship sites and land seizures under archaeological pretexts: the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron was closed to Muslim worshippers for a holiday period while settlers had access, and occupation forces posted notices in Tulkarem seizing land around the Banat Yacoub shrine—registered property of the Islamic Waqf—citing preservation. A settlement tender tied to an expansion project was advanced with a closing date set days before Israel’s Oct. 27 vote, a timing highlighted in reporting as politically significant as high holidays and agricultural seasons approach.