BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip — Moussa Saadat and his wife, Fatima, pick olives and thoroughly inspect them to see if they are damaged or not. They explained to Al-Monitor that worms had infested the majority of this year’s crop.
The damaged olives, which cannot be pickled because of holes created by the worms, are thrown in a bucket to be pressed. If undamaged, the olives are placed in another bucket and used for pickling. The third bucket that contains black and undamaged olives has the smallest number.