Palestine's vital olive harvest ruined by Israel's Gaza assault and West Bank attacks
Ramallah, West Bank - After a year of relentless Israeli assault, Gaza's olive harvest is set to suffer, while in the illegally occupied West Bank, Palestinian farmers fear to tend their groves due to settler attacks.
For generations, olive harvests have been central to Palestinian life and culture.
"We are happy that the olive season has started, but we are afraid because we are in a state of war," said Rami Abu Asad, who owns a farm in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
Workers picking the olives by hand stay alert, listening for drones or warplanes that could bomb without warning.
"But it is clearly evident (to Israeli forces) that we are workers and we do nothing else," he said, noting a sweeping Israeli military operation in Jabalia, less than 12 miles to the north.
Israel has killed at least 42,603 people in Gaza in the last year, according to data from the territory's health ministry. The British medical journal Lancet and other experts believe the true number to be far greater, potentially upwards of 186,000 as of July.
The ongoing Israeli siege has reduced vast areas of Gaza to rubble, with about 68% of the territory's agricultural areas damaged by the conflict and farmers unable to fertilize or irrigate their land, the UN says.
"The number of remaining olive trees is very small, and the costs are very high," Asad added.
Palestinians expect lower olive production
Jamal Abou Shaouish, an agricultural engineer, expects this year's harvest in Gaza to net just 15,000 tons, sharply down from around 40,000 tons in previous years.
Supply shortages and destruction caused by Israel will also impact the quality of olives, while pressing prices have soared due to Israel's blockade, which has resulted in a lack of fuel needed to run the machinery required for sorting and pressing the oil.
In the West Bank, the harvest has been marred by perennial fears of attacks by Israeli settlers, who regularly prevent Palestinians from accessing their olive groves or outright destroy their orchards.
For Khaled Abdallah, he has made the tough decision not to harvest the olives this season on his land near the Beit El settlement.
"I didn't even consider going to these lands close to the colony, because the situation is very dangerous," he told AFP, saying he will instead focus on harvesting olives from a separate property in the village of Jifna, north of Ramallah.
Like other Palestinians who own olive groves near the settlements, Abdallah coordinated with Israeli advocacy organizations to obtain special permits for the crops.
"But there are no longer any rights organizations capable of protecting us from settler attacks, and there is no longer any coordination," he lamented.
Olive groves have long been essential to the economy and culture of the West Bank, but have also been the site of bloody attacks by Israeli settlers for decades.
Israeli violence on the rise in the West Bank
In the past, Israeli settlers have assaulted Palestinians, set fire to or damaged their crops, stolen sheep, and blocked them from getting to their land, water, and grazing areas, according to the UN.
And since October 7, 2023, the violence has only intensified.
Attacks by settlers have increased "significantly" this year, said the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. According to the group's spokesperson Fadia Qawasmi, farmers from the village of Madama, south of Nablus, were prevented from accessing their plots for three years. Settlers also damaged their vehicles.
"The owners were expelled from their land by settlers from Itamar," said Abdallah Ziada, the head of the Madama village council. "Every day there are clashes."
"We cannot distinguish those who arrests us – if they are settlers or soldiers, because they are sometimes in civilian clothes and armed, and other times in military uniform," Ziada added.
Earlier this week, the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said Israeli forces shot dead a woman in Faqoua village near Jenin while she harvested olives.
The Israeli military claimed it was helping amid the increase in attacks.
"This is done out of a commitment to maintaining the security of the area and its residents, while at the same time allowing the local residents to harvest their crops," the military said in a statement to AFP. "IDF (Israeli military) forces are securing the harvest in the coordinated areas."
For many Palestinian families, the olive season provides a vital source of income, now under growing threat.
Earlier this week, UN experts said Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank are facing "the most dangerous olive season ever."
Cover photo: ZAIN JAAFAR / AFP