‘I lost my wife and my land’: A deadly olive harvest season ends in the West Bank
Palestinians and solidarity activists harvest olives in Duma, northern occupied West Bank, on the first day of the olive harvest, 10 October 2024.
Imad Abu Hawash writes in +972 on 12 December 2024:
The Palestinian village of Faqqu’a, situated at the northern tip of the occupied West Bank, is encircled by Israel’s separation barrier from three sides. As such, for the past two decades since the barrier was built, residents of the village have been required to obtain approval from the Israeli military before they can access over 4,000 dunams of their agricultural land (nearly 1,000 acres).
Hussam Abu Salama owns seven dunams (1.7 acres) of olive-planted land in this area. Each year, when the harvest season comes around, he waits for the army to give them the go-ahead. This year, the village council got the green light to begin the harvest on Oct. 16. “I wish we hadn’t received permission,” Abu Salama told +972.
Israeli soldiers stop Palestinian farmers from reaching their olive groves through the access gate of the Elon Moreh settlement during the harvest season in the village of Salem, east of Nablus, 27 November 2024
The following morning, he went with his wife, Hanan, and their son to begin picking olives on their land. “We were about 100 meters from the barrier when an army vehicle arrived,” he recounted. “One of the soldiers fired two shots into the air. We got back into our car and drove further away.”
The family repositioned themselves some 250 meters from the barrier, thinking that would be far enough away to satisfy the army. At around 10 a.m., however, as they were picking, a white patrol vehicle came and stopped nearby. “I was watching the soldiers; it did not cross my mind what they would do next,” Abu Salama said. “We were not posing any threat to them.”
Suddenly, the soldiers opened fire directly at the family. “There were bullets everywhere,” Abu Salama said. Moments later, Hanan screamed: “Hussam, Hussam, I’ve been hit!”
With Hanan bleeding from her right side, Abu Salama and his son rushed to carry her back to their car. His son drove while Abu Salama called for an ambulance. “Blood started coming out of Hanan’s mouth,” he recounted. “I realized I was going to lose her.”