‘Olives are everything for us’: West Bank farmers prevented from harvesting by settler violence... About 70% of town’s olives are inaccessible without risking a potentially fatal clash with Israeli settlers

Mahmud Hassan, the mayor of As-Sawiya, pointing to inaccessible olive groves. Photograph: Jason Burke/The Guardian

Jason Burke and Sufian Taha in As-Sawiya

Mon 3 Nov 2025 05.53 EST

Around As-Sawiya, rolling hills covered in fields and orchards rise to a horizon sharp against a pristine blue sky. It is a stunning view. But look closer and it becomes clear why the few thousand residents of this small town in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank say they are under siege – and why the olives are still heavy on the trees two weeks after the official date of the beginning of the annual harvest.

From the highest point in As-Sawiya, Mahmud Hassan, the mayor, points out the olive orchards on the other side of the highway below the town. They lie on land owned by local families but are now impossible to reach without risking a potentially fatal clash with Israeli settlers who live in settlements around the town, or with Israeli security forces, he says. In all, about 70% of the town’s olives are currently inaccessible.

“Our olives are everything for us: the backbone of our economy, in our homes, on our tables, in our culture. These last years have brought nothing but misery to us,” says Hassan, 68.

The situation is the same across much of the West Bank. Since the beginning of October, the Palestinian Farmers’ Union (PFU) has logged more than 50 incidents of violence or destruction.

The UN has recorded more: 86 olive harvest-related settler attacks resulting in casualties, property damage or both, including several incidents reported in the days before the official start of the season on 9 October. More than 3,000 trees and saplings have been damaged and 112 Palestinians injured, including 50 by settlers.

“Incidents entailed attacks on farmers inside or on their way to olive groves, theft of crops and harvesting equipment, and vandalism of olive trees,” the UN said. “In total, 50 villages and towns have been affected,” an increase on last year’s harvest when there were 80 incidents in 48 villages and towns that led to the injury of 50 Palestinians.

Records kept by the PFU show incidents of violence have soared fourfold, from three or four daily before the war in Gaza. The most recent attacks are “not random, but deliberate efforts to undermine Palestinian rural life”, the PFU said in a statement.

 The Israeli settlers in the West Bank are supported by far-right ministers, part of the country’s ruling coalition, the most rightwing in Israel’s history. Last month, a bill introduced by far-right lawmakers applying Israeli law to the West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/03/olives-settler-violence-west-bank-farmers

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The ruin of Gaza: how Israel’s two-year assault has devastated the territory- IDF’s bombs and ground offensive have killed tens of thousands of people and reduced entire cities to rubble

Students doing their homework amid the rubble of buildings in Khan Younis in September 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/oct/07/the-ruin-of-gaza-how-israel-two-year-assault-has-devastated-the-territory

Jason Burke. Graphics by Paul Scruton and Heidi Wilson

Tue 7 Oct 2025 06.35 EDT

The devastating war in Gaza has entered its third year, standing as Israel’s longest war since the 1948 conflict that led to the country’s creation.

The majority of those killed by Israel’s offensive in the strip have been civilians, and the overall total now exceeds 67,000. Entire families have been wiped out in a single airstrike. Sometimes, only a single individual, frequently a child, is left alive. There are also nearly 170,000 injured. In all, casualties amount to roughly 10% of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

There may well be many more dead uncounted in the rubble that now covers much of Gaza. Those killed by untreated illnesses, poor nutrition, suicide or other causes linked to the conflict are more numerous still. Thousands of people have simply disappeared – lost, incinerated or blown apart by explosions, or held in secret detention by Israel.

Israel has controlled and restricted supplies going into Gaza throughout the conflict but imposed a total blockade of supplies from March to May 2025, saying that Hamas was stealing assistance to pay for its military operations. Though restrictions were eventually eased amid international outrage, famine was declared in parts of Gaza in August.

The impact of Israel’s offensive on Gaza has led to accusations of genocide, which Israel has denied. In September, independent experts working for the UN high commissioner for human rights said that the death toll and destruction in Gaza met its criteria for a genocide. This, too, was challenged by Israel.

The war, triggered by a Hamas raid into Israel on 7 October 2023 which killed approximately 1,200 people and took a further 251 as hostages, has devastated Gaza, in physical and human terms. Almost all Palestinians in the territory have been displaced, usually many times. Entire cities have been reduced to dust and broken concrete. Witnesses of attacks, or victims of the violence around some food distribution sites, or medics in overwhelmed hospitals describe “post-apocalyptic landscapes” or “hell on earth”... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/oct/07/the-ruin-of-gaza-how-israel-two-year-assault-has-devastated-the-territory?CMP=GTUS_email

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Declaration of famine in Gaza lays bare Israel’s disregard for humanitarian duty 

Civilians made up 15 of every 16 people killed by Israel in Gaza since March, data suggests Report from independent conflict tracker Acled indicates one of the highest civilian death rates since start of war

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from Israel. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters

Jason Burke in Jerusalem

Fri 19 Sep 2025

About 15 of every 16 Palestinians the Israeli military has killed since its renewed offensive in Gaza began in March have been civilians, data collected by the independent violence-tracking organisation Acled indicates.

The civilian death rate implied by a report from Acled, which stands for Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, is one of the highest recorded during the conflict, and will increase international pressure on Israel as its forces advance into Gaza City, forcing up to a million people to evacuate and threatening further large-scale civilian casualties.

Researchers from Acled, which is backed by western governments and the UN, tracked reports of losses sustained by Hamas and allied armed groups in Gaza from the Israeli military, reliable local and international media, statements from Hamas and other sources over a six-month period.

“Since 18 March, Israel claims it killed more than 2,100 operatives, though Acled data indicates that the number is closer to 1,100, and includes Hamas’ political figures, as well as fighters from other groups,” the report said.

More than 16,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel broke a two-month ceasefire in March with a huge wave of airstrikes across the devastated territory, according to statistics published by the UN.

Military officials briefed the 2,100 figure to Israeli media in mid-August and internal Israeli estimates may have risen since. Acled’s researchers may also not have captured all combatant deaths over the six-month period, but their total does include Hamas political figures.

The Guardian revealed last month that internal data from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) indicated a civilian death toll of 83% between the outbreak of war in October 2023 and May of this year.

The Acled report also found that incidents involving the demolition of buildings in Gaza had increased significantly since the renewal of hostilities in March, with 698 in the 15 months before, and 500 in the six months since. Many incidents involved more than one building, researchers said... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/19/civilians-made-up-15-of-every-16-people-israel-killed-in-gaza-since-march-data-suggests

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The Guardian: ‘No water, food, health care, toilet’: Desperation deepens in Gaza’s camps

Tents set up by displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi near the border with Egypt in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Hundreds of new shelters set up near Khan Younis as Palestinians flee fighting in Rafah

Malak A Tantesh in Khan Younis and Jason Burke in Jerusalem

Wed 15 May 2024 00.00 EDT

Last modified on Wed 15 May 2024 02.06 EDT

Soaring above the rows of tents 10 deep on the dunes stretching back from the Mediterranean sea is a reminder of better times in Gaza: a ferris wheel.

Now, the cafes, paths and miniature train of the Asda’a amusement park are obscured by hundreds of shelters, put up by some of the half a million newly displaced people who have made their way to this sandy strip of coastline near the city of Khan Younis to escape fighting in the north and south of the territory.

Massa al-Arbeed, 10, had only just arrived from Gaza City, with her brother and mother.

“We have had to leave a lot behind because this is perhaps the sixth time we have moved,” al-Arbeed told the Guardian. “So I’m just sitting here.

“There are no games or dolls to play with, or even a house to take shelter in, and because we move a lot, I’ve lost touch with all my friends and now I don’t know anything about them.”

Always anxious, sometimes injured or sick, frequently hungry and thirsty, most of the inhabitants of the tented city that has risen among the dunes and scrubby fields are seeking shelter from the relentless Israeli offensive that has reached Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza.

Another hundred thousand have moved from northern Gaza... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/15/no-water-food-health-care-toilet-desperation-deepens-in-gazas-camps 

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