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On October 15, Israeli forces expelled residents and farmers from Azariel, an olive grove on the outskirts of Kfarshouba in South Lebanon, ordering them to return the following week if they still wished to harvest their trees. The next morning, an Israeli bulldozer, flanked by two army tanks, invaded the olive grove and uprooted the trees.

A few days before the expulsion, Chebli, a farmer from Kfarshouba, had watched an Israeli bulldozer uproot 70 olive trees belonging to his neighbor.

“I went over to him and found him crying,” he told Mondoweiss. “He spent more than 20 years plowing this land and pruning the trees, and he hadn’t even harvested them yet.”

Following the partial ceasefire agreement that was signed in June of this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military would remain in what Israel calls its “security zone” in order to “continue to destroy terrorist infrastructure.” In addition to this, Israeli defense minister Israel Katz declared that Lebanese civilians will not be allowed to return south of the Litani River, leaving hundreds of thousands of people indefinitely waiting to return. For farmers and agricultural workers, this forced displacement means not only losing their homes, but also their livelihood.

Olive groves cover around 62,000 hectares of land in Lebanon — nearly a quarter of the country’s farmland — making it one of the most vital crops in the country. The autumn harvest, which peaks in October and November, yields around 19,000 to 20,000 tons of olive oil per year, according to the International Olive Council. One of the oldest olive trees in the world, estimated at 1,100 years old, reportedly resides in the northern part of the country. In Kfarshouba, Chebli’s village that is now occupied by the Israeli army, the olive trees range between 300 and 500 years old.

Lebanon’s Environmental Defenders Say Israel Is Deliberately Targeting Them

Across South Lebanon, farmers and residents describe a pattern of bulldozed groves, ancient trees uprooted and stolen, and Israeli troops expelling anyone who tries to reach their land. On October 11, the Lebanese Army said Israeli fire killed Ali Abdel Hassan Sweidan, a retired chief warrant officer, as he was inspecting his property in Yater, in Bint Jbeil district, during the olive harvest.

The war has also severed farmers from their markets. “Khiam alone used to buy half the South’s harvest,” Chebli said, by his own estimate, referring to the hilltop town on the Israeli border, which Israeli forces now occupy.

“The olive season is gold for people,” he said. “It lets you hold your head up.”

Beyond the Yellow Line

Israel continues to occupy a buffer zone behind what it calls the “yellow line,” an area that includes 55 to 62 towns and villages, totaling around 6 percent of Lebanese territory. The US-brokered ceasefire agreement........

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