The farmer Suhail Al-Masry is traumatized and bewildered after he lost 100 tons of his peach crop due to the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Masry looks at the ruins of his crop which he has been waiting for anxiously in grief. His 50-dunum land is 700 meters away from the separation fence east of Khan Yunis in the south of the Strip.
He was unable to reach his land during the period of Israeli aggression which coincided with the harvest of the crop. He was forced to remove the peach fruits most of which fell to the ground as well as what remained hanging on the trees due to their over-ripening.
Masry says during an exclusive interview with PIC “The Israeli escalation on Gaza made us worry about ourselves our lives our work and our source of livelihood.”
“As soon as the truce was announced on Friday morning I went to the land to check on it but I was shocked by the number of peaches lying on the ground other than those damaged on the trees” he added.
Masry held some branches laden with spoiled peaches and bemoaned his inability to collect all the harvest.
The farmer estimated his losses at $100000 pointing out that they are debts to the owners of fertilizers medicines and other supplies.
He pointed out that the peach fruit cannot survive more than two weeks on the tree and quickly fall to the ground if they are not harvested prematurely.
Masri called on the relevant authorities in Gaza to expedite the payment of compensation to those affected in the agricultural sector. This profession is the only source of livelihood for nearly 30 workers in poor economic conditions.
The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture in Gaza estimated the value of the initial damages and losses incurred by the agricultural sector in the Strip as a result of the 11-day Israeli aggression at $32 million.
The ministry expected that the damage and losses in the agricultural sector would be doubled as a result of the bombing of hundreds of dunums and tens of agricultural facilities and direct targeting of warehouses storing agricultural production equipment.
The damage also included the lands planted with vegetables and fruits and the total and partial destruction of agricultural facilities and agricultural infrastructure (conveyor lines and irrigation networks in addition to agricultural wells water tanks and nurseries).
The ministry called on international and humanitarian organizations to provide protection for the farmers and the food production facilities to prevent the collapse of the food security and agriculture in Gaza.
Dozens of workers in the Ministry of Agriculture have been working since the ceasefire in Gaza on recording the damages and receiving reports of those affected in the five provinces of the Strip.
Gaza produces about 320000 tons of vegetables grown on 80000 dunums while it produces 75000 tons of fruit grown on an area of 84000 dunums.
