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STORY: Palestinians seeking to harvest olives in the occupied West Bank were met by Israeli soldiers on Sunday.

They prevented the farmers from picking fruit in some parts of the valley in the northern West Bank.

High above, Israeli settlers looked down on the dispute.

Palestinians and rights groups say since the beginning of the harvest this month, armed Israeli settlers have assaulted Palestinian farmers, cut down trees and set fire to olive groves.

Amid more than a year of carnage in Gaza, the West Bank as been at a lower simmer.

Palestinians claim the territory as part of a homeland.

Israeli settlers, emboldened by some far-right Israeli government ministers, seek to annex the territories they call Judea and Samaria.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment when asked by Reuters about accusations that soldiers bar olive farmers from accessing their land.

The military says it tries to ensure Palestinians can harvest while avoiding clashes with settlers, and says the war in Gaza has raised tension in the West Bank, causing a security situation that is harder to manage.

The olive harvest, which runs roughly between September and November, has been caught up in that violence.

It's an ancient form of agriculture that in some ways hasn't changed, at least not much.

Tarps are draped beneath the trees, and the branches are raked or plucked for their fruits.

The olives are gathered and fed into a crusher, which produces the oil.

But earlier this month, in the village of Burin, soldiers tried to stop Palestinians from gathering the olives on these tarps.

A settler told them they couldn't have the fruit of these trees.

Ibrahim Omaran is the head of the Burin municipal council.

He told Reuters that in past years the harvest was a joyous occasion: they brought tea and seasonal foods and picked olives.

This year, he says, "this season has become tarnished with blood."

They now had to try and steal their own olives, he said, as if they were thieves, as if they were not the real owners of the land.

Khittam Najjar is a resident of Burin. She said the land was her identity. Without the land, she had no identity.

Musab Sufan is another Burin resident. Beyond his gate, he can see the groves of olives he said were burned by Israeli settlers.

The Israeli rights group Yesh Din released this video it says is from September, showing masked settlers setting fire to olive trees, and stealing their fruit.

Sufan said there were always obstacles to the harvest. Sometimes the army says the groves are a closed military zone. He said he picked the trees in front of his house in secret.

A group of Western states including France, Britain and Germany issued a joint memo this month saying olive-picking had become "dangerous" due to settler violence and calling on Israel to allow Palestinians to join the harvest.