BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Jack Giacaman enjoys telling customers that every day is Christmas in his shop, which features hand-crafted olive-wood Nativity ... attack on Israel by Gaza-based Hamas ...

7,000 years-old microscopic remains of charred olive wood (Olea) recovered from Tel ... “Olive trees grow in the wild in the land of Israel, but they do not grow in the Jordan Valley,” she ...

“Wood was the ‘plastic’ of the ancient ... a transfer of both knowledge and genetic olive material from northern Israel to the Central Jordan Valley must have occurred,” they wrote.