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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/women-farmers-defiant-despite-gaza-attack/37916">electronicintifada.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Women farmers defiant despite Gaza attack</h1>
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<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/yasmin-abusayma">Yasmin Abusayma</a></span> -
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">5 June 2023</span></span> </p>
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<span title="A hand holds up a cantaloupe that has a hole in it."><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2023-06/160523_khanyounis_mz_00_25.jpg?itok=JFVhibT_×tamp=1685987806" alt="A hand holds up a cantaloupe that has a hole in it." title="A hand holds up a cantaloupe that has a hole in it." class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="261"></span><p>Israeli airstrikes in May 2023 on Gaza inflicted damage to crops and soil and confined many farmers to their homes.</p><small>
<span>APA images</span></small><p>The last month
of spring is typically a busy time for farmers in Gaza. In Khuzaa, a
town in southeastern Gaza, the crops would just be showing their
promise.</p>
<p>But this May only brought destruction and death to Gaza’s farming
communities, as Israel’s five days of attacks on the Strip prevented
farmers from tending to their crops.</p>
<p>Aseel al-Najjar, Ghaida Qudeih and Nadine Abu Rouk run a thriving farm of approximately 1.5 acres in Khuzaa.</p>
<p>“Our farm is located just 500 meters [a third of a mile] from the
so-called security fence [with Israel],” al-Najjar said. “And in the
midst of the war and air raids, reaching our land meant risking our
lives – it even meant death.”</p>
<p>The Israeli airstrikes meant that the farmers were confined to their
homes, unable to venture outside due to the danger posed by Israel’s
warplanes.</p>
<p>And though they had worked diligently for three years to cultivate their land – a task that is already difficult given Israel’s <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/herbicide-warfare-against-gaza-farmers">poisoning</a>
of Gaza’s soil with noxious herbicides – their melon and tomato crops
that had shown such promise had now withered due to a loss of water for
five consecutive days.</p>
<h2>Damage is done</h2>
<p>It is estimated that Israel’s May 2023 war on Gaza inflicted over $1.3 million in <a href="https://moa.gov.ps/?p=12267">losses</a> in the agricultural sector, according to the Palestinian agriculture ministry.</p>
<p>This amount includes indirect and direct damage by the Israeli
attacks that extended to crops, irrigation wells, agriculture equipment
and storage facilities.</p>
<p>Al-Najjar, Qudeih and Abu Rouk depend on multiple sources of water to
irrigate their Khuzaa farm, including wells and retention ponds. But
due to the high salinity of the water they collect, they also have to
purchase water from Israel’s state water company, Mekorot, which is
twice the cost of well water.</p>
<p>The three women, all in their twenties and from the Khan Younis area
of Gaza, grew up in farming families, but they had never anticipated
becoming farmers themselves. They completed their university degrees in
fields such as education, commerce and finance, but the post-graduation
job hunt was a dead end.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/future-gaza-graduates-poverty-and-grueling-labor/37626">Unemployment</a> in Gaza is staggeringly high due to the ongoing Israeli blockade.</p>
<p>Agriculture, to them, seemed like a promising alternative.</p>
<p>“Encouragement and support from our families were abundant,” Qudeih
said, “as agriculture has been a cherished profession handed down
through generations.”</p>
<p>In that, they were well aware of the hardships that accompany farming
in Gaza, but the near constant setbacks are becoming difficult to
endure.</p>
<h2>Not the first time</h2>
<p>In May 2021, during a major Israeli attack on Gaza, Israel fired
missiles near the women’s farmland in Khuzaa, leaving behind unexploded
ordnance. Just as in 2023, al-Najjar, Qudeih and Abu Rouk were unable to
reach their land to irrigate, so they lost more than half an acre worth
of crops.</p>
<p>Furthermore, they found that when they tried to plant crops anew,
they did not thrive. The soil had been contaminated with toxic
substances, likely <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-wages-scorched-earth-warfare-gaza/30291">herbicides</a>, sprayed by Israeli planes.</p>
<p>“I still remember the moment I went back to check on my land,”
al-Najjar said. “I was heartbroken when I learned that the crops of
tomatoes, cucumber and other vegetables had died and withered.”</p>
<p>Over time, they recovered from that loss, once again taking to the land and cultivating new crops.</p>
<p>Now, three years later, the loss hits deeper.</p>
<p>Al-Najjar described it as an “immense setback” to their livelihoods.
“I don’t know what to do to compensate for all the losses we’ve
incurred.”</p>
<p>They also understand that others fared far worse in the latest Israeli attack.</p>
<p>On the morning of 10 May, the Israelis used a drone to fire a missile at farmer <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AJA.Palestine/videos/185449534444630/">Muhammad Abu Taima</a>, <a href="https://www.mezan.org/en/post/45905/On-the-third-day-of-its-military-assault-against-Gaza,-Israel-intensifies-its-attacks-on-densely-populated-areas,-terrorizing-the-Palestinian-civilian-population">killing</a> him. He had been outside on a farm in Abasan al-Kabira, not far from Khuzaa.</p>
<p>“I knew Muhammad very well,” Abu Rouk said. “He exuded pride in his
agricultural work. In spite of how dangerous it was, he continued to
work the land regardless of the escalation and the tense atmosphere. He
was a day laborer and had a family to provide for.”</p>
<p>The three farmers mourn his death and continue to think ahead, about how to plan for their futures.</p>
<p>Several days before the Israeli attack, they received word that they
had received funding from the German government via the GIZ foundation
to establish a farm of almost two acres.</p>
<p>“The dream persists despite the loss of the crops,” al-Najjar said.</p>
<p><em>Yasmin Abusayma is a freelance writer and translator from Gaza.</em></p> <h3>
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