The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture in Gaza warned farmers of Israeli pesticides to be sprayed on border lands urging them to take the required precautionary measures.
The Ministry said in a press statement after the meeting held with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday that a request was tabled with the ICRC asking to be informed of the time pesticides will be sprayed on the borderline.
Israel revealed that the pesticides spray time will be between 25th December 2016 and 5th January 2017 and did not specify the type of pesticides to be used.
Farmers were urged to delay the planting date in the border areas and cover the crops until the time of spraying pesticides is over.
They were advised to harvest the ripe leafy crops right away to avoid any damages that might be caused after the pesticides are sprayed and urged them to run the irrigation sprinklers during the spraying.
The Ministry affirmed its rejection of the Israeli occupation’s practices against the Gazan farmers especially spraying pesticides in the border areas which inflicted heavy losses in the agricultural sector in the past two years.
The Ministry called on the international institutions and human rights organizations to stand with the Palestinian farmers and take effective measures to reduce or avoid the losses and to pressure Israel to stop such practices which damage the Palestinian environment and agriculture.
