How Israel weaponized trees in Palestine

Much of this process is unnatural and predates the ongoing war in Gaza .

Spaces formerly inhabited by Palestinians and their olive groves have been cleared by Israeli forces in many locations.

The tactics used during the Nakba of 1948 — deforestation and afforestation, cutting off water supplies, deadly raids on Palestinian communities — are still being applied today .

Israeli authorities see the Negev as an enormous opportunity for large-scale afforestation.

The Yatir Forest , a 7,400-acre woodland of four million trees, largely Aleppo pines, is Israel 's crown jewel.

For that forest to prosper, many of the pre-existing flora and fauna have been decimated or exiled.

It also appears that the forests are not accomplishing the JNF 's stated objective of reversing climate change.

The fragmentation of remaining Palestinian land has drastically reduced people's ability to sustain their livelihoods, groups say.

Israel 's critics wonder that tactic will be used to erase evidence of possible genocide.

For now, planting another forest where Gaza 's villages and cities once stood seems like a distant possibility and an unimportant concern.