ZIBQIN, southern Lebanon — In a field overlooking a lush valley, residents of the village of Zibqin balanced on branches as they picked olives, with Lebanese Army soldiers standing nearby.

Zibqin sits beside Israel's self-declared "security zone" in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops have demolished dozens of villages on the grounds that the armed group Hezbollah had embedded itself in civilian infrastructure — a claim the group denies. Despite a June ceasefire between the two sides, Israeli shelling frequently strikes the valley below the olive groves.

Palestinians, Israeli rights groups and the United Nations have reported increased violence and olive thefts by Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Now Lebanese farmers fear for their own safety as well, illustrating how conflict is once again upending the annual harvest.

Even so, farmers are returning to fields they have tended for generations, determined to gather a crop that ranks among their main sources of income and nutrition.

Ali Bzieh, a 65-year-old farmer from Zibqin, said he had no choice but to come to the fields. "This is my land, this is my livelihood, this is a harvest we wait for from one year to the next," he said, sitting beneath the branches of an olive tree. "We have an attachment to this land, to the plants, and to the crops — we don't leave them."

Limited protection

Many families returned to Zibqin after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, but the situation remains unstable, said Raef Bzieh, a local official. "The ongoing bombing and the aggressions taking place on the outskirts of the village have of course caused worry and panic among the people."

The danger prompted residents to ask the Lebanese Army to escort them to their fields. Mustafa Barakat, a 50-year-old carpenter, said villagers still did not feel safe even with the soldiers present. "But if the Israelis decide to cause harm, they can harm us, and the army," he said. "They have struck the Lebanese Army more than once."

Israeli attacks have killed 26 Lebanese soldiers in 2026, according to statements posted by the Lebanese Army on X. The Lebanese Army is not a party to the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

Responding to questions from Reuters, the Israeli military said its strikes in Lebanon target Hezbollah and its infrastructure, and are not directed at the Lebanese Army or civilians. It added that it is working to "enable the olive harvest and assist residents in carrying it out."

Thirty-eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon in 2026, according to posts on the Israeli military's website. Taken together, the figures point to the level of violence still running through the border area — the reality Zibqin's farmers weigh each time they set out for their groves.

War changes the harvest's rhythms

Barakat's days in the olive grove once began in the early morning and stretched until sunset. Now he spends time in the field only when the Lebanese Army is present. In practice, that means the harvest now moves at the pace the security situation allows rather than the one farmers would choose.

The danger has reshaped what used to be an occasion for families to gather and share the hard work of picking olives. "In the past, we used to treat this (harvest) season like an outing," he said. He would come to the fields with his family and prepare food together. "Now, you can't bring children… bombing could occur, and they could get hurt," he said.

The conflict has taken a toll in other ways. "We weren't able to tend to our olive trees, so our olive trees did not yield as they usually do," said Ali Bzieh, who was displaced for several months. He said this year's harvest was half of what it normally is. For a crop that ranks among their main sources of income and nutrition, a season cut in half is a shortfall families feel well beyond the picking months.

Ali Bzieh said he hoped the situation would not escalate further and force his family to flee again. Many in Zibqin, however, are bracing for that possibility: some residents continue to pay rent on apartments in areas farther north, while others have already reserved a place to stay in the event of renewed escalation. How the ceasefire holds through the rest of the harvest — and whether the army escorts continue — is likely to shape how much of this year's crop comes in.

Yet as war casts its shadow over the harvest for the fourth consecutive year, the farmers refuse to abandon their fields.

"This land is our identity, it is the passport we carry," Barakat said. "If we abandon it, we are truly left without an identity."

— Reuters