Palestinians living in the West Bank claim many of these fires are often deliberately started by right-wing Jewish settlers, who torch the olive groves as part of their intimidatory campaign to take over land.

This weekend, eight firefighters from Nablus arrive in Scotland on a month-long trip, during which they will undergo intensive training by the Fire Brigades Union Scotland in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perth.

The initiative started six months ago, when union secretary Ken Ross visited Nablus, and was struck by the local firefighters’ need for more equipment and resources.

Mr Ross asked how he could help, and the firefighters requested training. Impressed by their enthusiasm, Mr Ross agreed and approached the local mayor and the British and Scottish governments for help.

With just a few days before their departure date, the firefighters’ visas came through, paving the way for their trip to Scotland, via Jordan.

“These guys work in very difficult conditions, but I’m very impressed,” says Mr Ross. “We will probably learn as much from them as they will from us.”

Nablus’ fire brigade is no ordinary firefighting unit. At the height of the second Intifada, a Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000 against the Israeli occupation, the brigade doubled up as an ambulance service, a makeshift prison and food distributor.

At the height of the clashes between Palestinians and Israel soldiers, curfews and restrictions severely hampered movement around the city.

“We stayed in the station for 23 days without leaving,” recalls Jamal, one of the fire team leaders. “We couldn’t move without co-ordination and permission from the Israeli Army. Even with co-ordination, we faced problems, soldiers shot at us and our fire engines, and they searched the buildings.”

One firefighter still bears the ugly scar of a gunshot wound on his shoulder.

These days though, the fire brigade faces a very different kind of problem.

Its antagonists are groups of militant Jewish settlers who have established communities in the West Bank in the belief that they have a historical and religious claim to the land they call Judaea and Samaria.

Palestinian olive farmers say these settlers often rampage through their groves, torching crops, ripping down trees and throwing stones at workers trying to bring in the olive harvest.

The Nablus fire brigade is called out almost every day at this time of year, when the olive crop is at its height and tensions flare between the two communities.

Sometimes, they arrive in time to save a crop. On other occasions they are too late, slowed down either by lengthy searches at Israeli checkpoints or angry settlers barring the way.

More moderate settlers, the only ones willing to talk to the media, claim the allegations are exaggerated, and often baseless. They say the Palestinians regularly attack members of their community, and suggest fires are accidentally started by local farmers.

The Israeli government drafted in soldiers this year to protect Palestinian olive farmers during the harvest. But the protection often lasts just two or three days.

Jamal Baghdadi, Nablus’ station chief, says the number of olive grove fires has risen by 30% this year and half of all the fires they tackle are caused by settlers.

He believes the settlers are becoming better co-ordinated in their attacks, and alleges they are often protected by the army, which has sometimes prevented them access.

“Many times, the soldiers say it is a closed [military] area. Other times, they just don’t care. When the settlers finish burning, the army says, ‘You’ve finished now, so go home’.”

Palestinians also suffer from efforts by the Israeli Army to evacuate illegal Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank, prompting revenge attacks by settlers on Palestinian farmland.

“It’s awful,” says Mr Ross. “It puts firefighters in harm’s way.”

With the escalation of attacks, the animosity between Israeli settlers and Palestinians remains high.

“We hate them,” says Ramez Dalah, deputy head of the Nablus station. “But as a firefighter, it is our humanitarian duty to go to accidents. And sometimes the injured are settlers.”