When Hussam Abu Salameh received permission from the Israeli military to access the olive grove that has been in his family for generations, he decided to wait.
His land, located east of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank, is next to the separation wall, where he had previously been shot at by Israeli soldiers.
Not long after, a military truck reappeared and soldiers started shooting at Palestinians in their groves, despite the local council’s prior coordination with the Israeli army to allow farmers to pick olives near the wall that surrounds Faqqua from three sides.
“I took off my hat and started waving it to ask them to stop, but they continued firing live ammunition at us,” says Hussam. He took the olives his family had gathered to his tractor and was preparing to leave when he heard his wife calling out that she had been injured.
“We ran out to her and found that a bullet hit her in the chest. We carried her to my son’s car and called an ambulance,” says Hussam.
“If it happens to us, then it’s bad and the world should sympathize with us”
“But if we’re doing it, it’s justified if it means securing our country by whatever means!”