Reports in the media indicate this week that Nablus is once again experiencing another incursion into the area with several fatalities. Since February 28, 2007, the city of Nablus has been the scene of repeated incursions. In response to calls for assistance to the city, Caritas Jerusalem has undertaken a distribution of humanitarian aid packages of food to 200 residents of Nablus’ Old City. The major problem that Nablus faces is the fact that the city is a virtual prison for its inhabitants. The region of Nablus is tightly monitored and movement restrictions in that area are very closely monitored by the Israeli army. The map on the previous page illustrates this very well. Read more about Emergency Situation in Nablus 

What petroleum is to Saudi Arabia, olive oil is to Palestine. Olives are a staple crop to the rural Palestinian communities traditionally dependent on agriculture. Olive groves represent over 40% of the cultivated area in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and represent almost 80% of the cultivated fruit trees. Each day during the olive harvesting season here in Palestine the media is full of stories of olive oil farmers and olive pickers being harassed, detained, robbed, violently attacked, critically wounded and in some cases even being shot and killed while attempting to harvest their olives on their own land. In the last four years, Israeli forces have uprooted almost 400,000 olive trees with a value of over US$ 60 million. Read more about Olive oil harvest continues to face challenges for Palestinian farmers