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NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Settlers assaulted a Palestinian farmer in the Sinjil area between Nablus and Ramallah on Monday, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, an official in charge of monitoring settlement activity the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that a number of settlers from Maale Pune assaulted farmer Mohammed Faqha, 45, leaving him with bruises and injuries.

Israeli forces then arrested Faqha and took him to an unknown location.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said there was a "clash between a number of Israeli civilians and a Palestinian," but no arrests were made.

According to a 2012 report on Israeli settler violence released by the Palestine Center, a Washington-based nonprofit, 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.
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