The blazes on Lebanon’s side of the border have flared daily since the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel began exchanging fire last month after the war between Israel and Hamas erupted.

“Forty-thousand trees mean 40,000 histories. People are connected to olives spiritually. Our ancestors planted them, and we are losing them today,” agriculture minister Abbas Hajj Hassan told Reuters.

He accused Israel of starting the fires by using shells containing white phosphorus to destroy wooded areas which Hezbollah fighters – who began firing into Israel in support of Hamas – could use as cover.

The Israeli army denied the accusation and said the smokescreen shells it uses do not contain white phosphorus.

“The smokescreen shells containing white phosphorus in the (Israeli military) are not intended or used for setting fire, and any claim that these shells are used for that cause is baseless,” an army spokesman said.

Agriculture ministry data showed some 130 fires, in 60 villages and their surroundings, have been recorded during the fighting. “These olives have not been harvested yet, meaning we lost the trees and the season,” Hajj Hassan said.

“They are throwing fire,” said Dory Farah, a farmer in the border village of Alma Alashaab. “We wouldn’t feel so sad if they were two- or three-year-old trees. (But) we have olives trees that are 200 years old.”

Mohammad El-Husseini of the South Lebanon farmers syndicate said the Lebanese government would not be able to compensate farmers for the losses, with the country four years into a devastating financial meltdown.

Lebanon’s agriculture ministry asked the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (Fao) on Tuesday for assistance to help affected farmers and in examining the soil to determine the extent of the damage, Hajj Hassan added.

Olive output covers more than 20% of farmland in Lebanon and provides income for more than 110,000 farmers and growers, accounting for 7% of agricultural gross domestic product, according to UN data.