Israeli occupation soldiers and settlers on Saturday attacked Palestinian farmers picking their olives in the village of AtTuwani, to the south of AlKhalil, in the occupied West Bank.

Local sources said Israeli soldiers cracked down on Palestinian farmers and international activists who were helping them pick their olives in the village.

Clashes flared up in the village as Israeli forces and settlers cordoned off the main entrance to the area.

The village is part of Masafer Yatta region, which the Israeli occupation authorities are trying to empty of their indigenous Palestinian population in favor of the colonial Israeli settlement enterprise. 

Over the past month, Israeli occupation forces and colonial settlers have intensified their attacks against Palestinian farmers and their lands in the occupied West Bank, burning and destroying trees and sometimes preventing farmers from harvesting their olives at gunpoint.

The olive harvest season, which has just started, is one of the most important for thousands of Palestinian households in the occupied territories whose income depends heavily on the success of this season.