Israel arrests 36 Palestinians in the West Bank, attacks on farmers ramp up

Israeli forces arrested 36 Palestinians during raids across the occupied West Bank on Thursday, as attacks on olive harvesters and farmers ramped up ahead of Tuesday's Israeli elections, Al Jazeera reported.

The raids came as settler violence against Palestinian farmers and their lands intensified during the olive harvest season, according to the report. Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Ramallah, noted the precarious calm across the territory ahead of the vote.

The arrests were part of a volatile week in the West Bank. A day later, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in a gunfight at a checkpoint north of Hebron, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order a full lockdown of the territory, Al Jazeera reported.

In response to the escalating violence, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for tougher measures, saying the Palestinian Authority 'must be dismantled and demilitarised', according to the report. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine praised the attacks.

The heightened military and settler activity around farming communities comes at a particularly sensitive moment, with the territory's olive harvest — a crucial season for Palestinian livelihoods — coinciding with the run-up to Israel's elections.