UN envoy and 13 member states tour Jenin as West Bank olive harvest faces settler attacks and access limits

Representatives of 13 UN member states toured Jenin in the northern West Bank on 22 October with the UN’s acting humanitarian coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ramiz Alakbarov, to see how the olive harvest, displacement and repeated attacks by Israeli settlers are affecting Palestinian communities. UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric described the visit at his briefing the same day, as reported by UN News.

Harvest under pressure in Arraba

In the village of Arraba, the group heard from farmers who, according to the UN, have faced recurrent settler attacks while trying to bring in their crop. The UN says those attacks, together with Israeli access restrictions, are undermining food security. Dujarric said humanitarian partners briefed the delegation on efforts to protect olive pickers, including accompanying them to the groves and providing legal aid to challenge the access restrictions imposed by Israel.

Alakbarov said up to 100,000 Palestinian households depend on olives for their livelihoods, and that many of them are being prevented from gathering their harvest safely. He stressed that crimes committed against Palestinians must stop and that the Israeli authorities must hold the perpetrators to account.

Families kept from Jenin refugee camp

At a UN clinic in the city of Qabatiya, the diplomats met Palestinians who, according to the UN, have been prevented by the Israeli authorities from returning to Jenin refugee camp since early 2025. Many of their homes in the camp have been destroyed. The UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, briefed the delegation on the support it provides to these families, from food and shelter to other essential services.

Alakbarov said more funding is needed and urged the Israeli authorities to allow a safe and dignified return of the displaced families. The UN summary did not include a response from the Israeli authorities, and this article carries none.

Part of a wider UN picture

The visit follows other UN reporting on the same pressures. Geopolitiki has covered the OCHA update on settler attacks in the West Bank as the olive harvest begins, and Alakbarov’s earlier briefing to the Security Council, in which he said the Gaza ceasefire exists in name only along the Yellow Line.

The UN statement presents the delegation’s findings as the organisation’s own account of what its officials and the visiting diplomats were told on the ground. It does not set out figures for the number of settler incidents during the current harvest.