Gaza olive harvest shrinks to a fraction as groves...

Summary

• The Gaza olive harvest has nearly vanished this autumn, as Israeli bulldozers and closed zones leave families with little of their old groves.
• They provided a daily staple for local families, and a little oil even went abroad.
• For families like his, the vanishing Gaza olive harvest means losing both an income and a treasured tradition.

AI Generated Summary

The Gaza olive harvest has nearly vanished this autumn, as Israeli bulldozers and closed zones leave families with little of their old groves.

Local farm officials believe only about 150,000 olive trees survive out of some 2 million. They expect around 5,000 tonnes of olives this season, against a normal crop of 40,000.

That would yield just 700 tonnes of olive oil. In a typical year, by contrast, Gaza produced about 5,000 tonnes. One year on from the ceasefire that halted the heaviest fighting, bulldozers have levelled nearly every orchard.

One family’s grove in ruins

Haidar Abu Middain, 60, once shared a huge orchard in central Gaza with his brothers and uncles. It stretched across 900 dunums, roughly 220 acres.

Every autumn, the whole clan gathered to pick 1,100 to 1,500 tonnes of olives. Part of the crop went to market as fruit, and the rest became oil, enough for up to 900 drums.