Palestinians move away from an olive grove after members of Israeli forces prevented residents from continuing the olive harvest in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya on 21 October. Alamy Stock Photo
occupied territories
Ian Hutcheson is expected to fly home in the early hours of the morning.
AN IRISHMAN IS set to be deported from Israel after he was arrested alongside a group of international volunteers in the occupied West Bank on Thursday.
Ian Hutcheson, who is 62 years old and from Dublin, travelled to the West Bank with the group to support locals during the annual olive harvest, an important cultural event for Palestinians.
Violence has flared in recent months in the West Bank with near-daily attacks, thefts or vandalism by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
Hutcheson and 11 others were detained on Thursday morning in the village of Al-Buweib, south of Hebron, while visiting a Palestinian family.
They were taken to a police station on Thursday night before being transferred to an immigration centre, where they are currently being held.
The group said they were visiting the village and were not taking part in the harvest or in any form of activism when they were arrested.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told The Journal it is aware of the case and is providing consular assistance.
Hutcheson’s daughter Gráinne confirmed to The Journal this evening that her father was being put on a flight home, which is expected to leave Israel in the early hours of the morning.
She said the family, who had not been able to speak to him before this evening, felt relieved.
The other people detained are from Italy, Germany, the United States, Britain and Australia. The group also said a Palestinian man who was also arrested has been released.
‘Outrageous’
People Before Profit councillor Conor Reddy has condemned Hutcheson’s arrest.
“It is outrageous that Ian went to the West Bank to offer support and protection to Palestinians as they harvested their crops, and for this he was arrested and detained and appears set to be deported,” he said.
It comes after Israeli forces briefly detained a US congressional candidate as he joined activists supporting Palestinians harvesting olives this week.
Brad Lander, a left-wing Democrat who is expected to easily win a House seat in New York City on 3 November, posted on social media that he was detained along with a group of rabbis and volunteers as they harvested olives west of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
“The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know,” Lander wrote on X.
He later wrote that he was released on account of his prominence, adding that “Palestinians face far worse consequences every day”.
The Israeli foreign ministry lashed out at Lander over what it called a “calculated political stunt”, and said he had ignored guidance to coordinate with Israeli authorities.
“This was not about harvesting olives. It was about harvesting headlines,” it said.
The Israeli military said that the Palestinian landowner had not requested permission to conduct the harvest.
“This coordination is necessary to ensure the security of the area and maintain public order,” it said, pointing to the “security risk of an uncoordinated harvest” near an Israeli settlement.
Settler attacks
Israel has faced growing international criticism over violence during the harvest, with rights groups documenting multiple attacks and other disruptions each day by settlers against Palestinians.
Ten people were arrested in Palestine last week following attacks by Israeli settlers on European politicians and a Washington Post photographer.
The photographer, Heidi Levine, was among a number of journalists working in the Ramallah area when dozens of settlers began to throw rocks towards the Palestinians who were harvesting olives, some of which they then set on fire.
The attack left Levine in hospital with broken vertebrae.
It came 10 days after settlers beat an AFP photographer covering the West Bank olive harvest, Jaafar Ashtiyeh, who also required treatment in hospital.
According to the UN, there were 2,803 attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank resulting in casualties and/or property damage between January 2025 and May 2026.
The Palestinian death toll in the West Bank has risen dramatically in recent years.
Between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2026, Israel killed 1,087 Palestinians in the West
Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Of those killed, 242 were children and 21 were women, according to figures compiled by B’Tselem.
Military operation
Earlier today, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a major military operation in the occupied West Bank after two Israeli soldiers were shot dead near Hebron.
A Hebron-based AFP photographer heading to another assignment witnessed the attack at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint between soldiers and two Palestinian men armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle, with Israeli forces eventually shooting the attackers dead.
The army later said that two of its soldiers “fell in combat in the Judea Junction” area, with three others wounded.
With three days to go until Israelis go to the polls in the first election since the 7 October attacks, Netanyahu – who has spent years casting himself as Israel’s protector – immediately cancelled campaign events to visit Hebron.
He said he and defence minister Israel Katz were “considering a very extensive IDF (army) operation in Judea and Samaria, such as has not been carried out since” the 1967 war.
“The IDF is ready to execute it and we will set the timing, but it is on the way,” he added.
The first step would see Israeli forces “enter the neighbourhood from which the terrorists came, evacuate the residents, go from house to house, and destroy the terrorist infrastructure”.
He said the military would apply a model previously used in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, the scene of a large-scale operation launched in January 2025 that the UN said forcibly displaced thousands.
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for a military campaign in the West Bank “exactly like in Gaza and Lebanon”.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem has called for urgent international pressure to prevent Israel from “plans for collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes”.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres through a spokesman voiced concern over Israeli closures that affect Palestinian livelihoods and called for a halt to violence on all sides.