Israeli forces have resealed the only reopened entrance to a Palestinian village south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, leaving around 2,500 residents isolated and facing severe restrictions on movement, as hundreds of olive trees have reportedly been uprooted during the harvest season.
Rami Nassar, head of Madama village council, told The New Arab that Israeli forces had closed the village's entrances with earth barriers, disrupting access to medical care, schools, workplaces and agricultural land.
A passage for humanitarian access was briefly reopened on Tuesday, but Israeli forces returned with a bulldozer on Wednesday and blocked it again, according to accounts provided by Nassar.
He said hundreds of olive trees had also been uprooted, describing the village as having become "a prison under the open sky".
The blockade began on 11 October, when Israeli bulldozers sealed roads connecting Madama with neighbouring Palestinian communities.
"On the morning of 11 October, we woke up to find that our village had been isolated from the world," Nassar said.
"It wasn't just the closure of one entrance, but a complete and tightly enforced closure."
He said Israeli forces blocked the northern entrance, the eastern road towards Burin and routes connecting Madama with Asira al-Qibliya, before obstructing smaller roads and dirt tracks.
Residents attempting to reach Nablus for work, education or medical appointments have consequently been forced to leave their vehicles behind and walk along difficult mountain paths.
Videos supplied to The New Arab show large mounds of earth and rocks obstructing paved roads. One recording shows schoolchildren carrying backpacks negotiating uneven, rocky ground beside an earth barrier, with a yellow school transport vehicle stopped nearby.
The restrictions have also disrupted deliveries of vegetables, cooking gas and essential medicines.
"This siege has suffocated our lives," Nassar said, warning of shortages of medication for chronic illnesses.
Among those most seriously affected are patients requiring regular kidney dialysis at An-Najah Hospital in Nablus.
Nassar said these patients had previously travelled by ambulance or private vehicle, but the blockade has made accessing treatment increasingly difficult.
He described an incident in which a resident suffered a serious medical emergency and villagers were forced to carry the patient along a rugged mountain path because an ambulance could not reach the village in time.
The blockade has coincided with the annual olive harvest, a vital source of income for Palestinian families.
Farmers have struggled to reach their groves, transport equipment and bring harvested olives home, while village accounts describe repeated attacks on agricultural land by Israeli forces and settlers.
Footage provided by Nassar shows uprooted olive trees lying amid disturbed earth, while separate recordings show excavators operating among olive groves on hillsides surrounding the village.
Nassar said Israeli forces had uprooted hundreds of trees, although the total number destroyed could not be independently established from the footage.
Other accounts shared with The New Arab describe a security guard from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar confiscating harvesting equipment from a Palestinian farmer in the Al-Rasm area south of Madama and scattering collected olives across the ground.
Palestinian news agency WAFA separately reported attacks on olive harvesters in Madama and other villages around Nablus on Sunday, including the theft of agricultural equipment and crops.
"For us, this season is not merely about agriculture. It is our livelihood for the entire year. It is our memory," Nassar told The New Arab.
"The olive trees stand there waiting for us, but our farmers cannot reach their land."
He warned that families risk losing an entire year's agricultural income.
"We fear that an entire year's labour will be lost before our eyes."
The events in Madama come amid escalating Israeli settler violence across the occupied West Bank during the olive harvest.
According to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, 199 harvest-related settler attacks were documented between 1 September and 12 October, leaving one Palestinian dead, 124 injured and more than 2,500 trees and saplings damaged.
The agency also documented settlers assaulting farmers and stealing harvesting equipment and crops in Madama itself earlier this month.
The agency said attacks on farmers have increased sharply in recent years, with restrictions on access to agricultural land threatening the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Palestinian families.
Nassar said the village council had contacted the Nablus governorate, Palestinian authorities, humanitarian organisations, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the International Committee of the Red Cross, seeking intervention to reopen the roads.
He said Israeli authorities had provided no official explanation for the closures or indication of when they might end.
"Nobody has told us when this collective punishment will end," he said.
