The lasting strain on Israeli olive growers six months after the devastating attack

“There has been no normal life here since October 7th,” said Ido Tamir, owner of Ptora. The olive harvest was just getting underway in southern Israel when Hamas militants crossed from Gaza at sunrise, killing 1,139 people and taking an additional 250 hostage. The attack was the deadliest in Israel’s history, with many comparing its impact on society to that of the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States. Tamir has a 40-hectare olive grove located 25 kilometers from the Gaza border. He remembers five rockets falling in his moshava – an agricultural settlement – and the sense of fear. “We were supposed to start the harvest on October 8th, so for us, [the attack] was on the first day of the new harvest,” Tamir said. Instead, the olives remained on the trees as Tamir and the rest of the country attempted to come to grips with the personal and national tragedy unfolding around them. One of Tamir’s friends is among those who were taken back to Gaza and held hostage. Tamir still ...