Nathifa Ammouri's nightmares are filled with the sound of Israeli bulldozers roaring towards her West Bank olive groves.

The 81-year-old woman said Israeli soldiers and settlers had uprooted about 200 olive trees from her 750 dunums (150 acres) of fields, the family's main source of income, since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September last year.

"I became allergic to the bulldozers' noise," said Ammouri. "They roar like monsters and break my heart."

Israel has uprooted thousands of Palestinian-owned trees since the uprising flared. The army says it clears the fields to deny gunmen cover from which to shoot at Israelis.

Ammouri and her husband, Mahmoud, start the day before sunrise, leaning on one another to care for their groves of olive, almond and fig trees near the Jewish settlement of Eli.

Ammouri, who has a strong and intimate bond with the olive trees, said she and Mahmoud's fields predate Israel's creation in 1948.

"I swear to God that I comb the tree as I used to comb the hair of my son. I feed her so it will feed me. I prune her branches tenderly as if I am giving her a shower," Ammouri said.

Groves near the Israeli colony have not been harvested because settlers chase them with dogs and sometimes shoot in the air, Ammouri said. "We go to the fields carrying our coffins," she said, leaning on a cane in her uprooted olive tree grove.

Ammouri said the Jewish settlers had also burned wheat fields and olive groves near the colonies, which are illegal under international law. "My heart was burning when I saw crops set on fire," Ammouri said, dozens of sawed and burned olive trees behind her.

Palestinians demand that all Jewish colonies – built on Arab land Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want for a future state – be dismantled.

Palestinians have viewed Jewish settlers as legitimate targets in their uprising, killing nearly 40 since the violence flared. Jewish settlers have killed at least nine Palestinians in almost a year of bloodshed.

Ammouri's village, which straddles a main road connecting the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus, is surrounded by heavily guarded Jewish settlements.