Israeli settlers, forces uproot at least 1,634,280 olive trees amid ongoing genocidal war on Gaza : Valley Vision
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Israeli settlers have cut down and uprooted dozens of olive trees in areas surrounding the Qaryut village, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported.
Anti-settlement activist Bashar al-Qaryuti said to the the news agency that the trees next to the illegal settlement of Eli had been destroyed.
According to a recent report by the Gaza Ministry of Agriculture, the two million olive trees that were planted on more than 50,000 square meters across Gaza have been reduced to less than 380,000 trees on 9,500 square meters, while the rest have been razed and destroyed. According to the same report, olive production has dropped from 40,000 tons to just 7,500.
The relentless bombardment of the entire Gaza Strip since October last year, coupled with the destruction of 70% of the arable land, has deprived Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants of their own food production, essential for their survival.
“The war has had a destructive impact on the olive sector, annihilating more than 75% of olive trees in the region,” the National Office for the Defense of Land and Resistance to Settlement said in a report.
In Occupied West Bank, at least 14,280 trees have been damaged or destroyed in the past year, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC), read the Wafa report.
Most of which were olive trees, with the governorates of Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah having the largest share of these destructions, according to CWRC.
”Olive trees are like us: resilient and with deep roots in this land,” says 60-year-old Bassam Abdullah.
The olive harvest season is crucial for thousands of Palestinian families, many of whom rely on it for their livelihood.
Olive trees are also a symbol of Palestinian rootedness in their land.
According to the national office report, Palestinians in the Strip were only able to have access to their fields during the one-week temporary ceasefire last November, which allowed them to collect their olive harvest in areas that were untouched by Israeli sabotaging whether through uprooting of the trees or destruction of the fields.
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