OPT: Access to buffer zone key to agricultural recovery - FAO

Photo: Shabtai Gold/IRIN Sami Gheit, a 62-year-old farmer, who said he lost 50 dunams (five hectares) of his land to a buffer zone created by the Israeli military between his home and the nearby settlement of Qiryat Arba (file photo) GAZA CITY, 2 April 2009 (IRIN) - Gaza’s battered agricultural sector has the capacity to recover but only if there is access to the buffer zone, and only if Gaza’s commercial crossings are fully opened, according to a recent UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report on Gaza. FAO says the area inside the buffer zone along the northern and eastern borders with Israel contains nearly a third of Gaza’s arable land, but it has been inaccessible to farmers, residents and UN agencies since 27 December 2008 (when Israel launched a 23-day assault on Gaza in retaliation for continued Hamas rocket-fire from Gaza into Israel). The width of the buffer zone is 0.5-1km along the eastern border and 1.8-2km along the northern border, according to FAO. The buffer zone extends about 55km along the length of Strip from northwest of Beit Lahiya to southeast of Rafah, but the area is not clearly marked. “In different areas there is a certain ambiguity regarding the exact border between Israel and the Strip,” according to an Israeli military source, who added that the fence that delineated the Gaza Strip today did not necessarily reflect the final border that would be determined by the two sides in a final status agreement. Severely affected Photo: Google Maps & PARC Israel's buffer zone, in existence for over a decade, has been extended in recent years (file photo) Gaza’s agricultural sector has been severely affected by the recent Israeli military operation: Cultivated land, livestock, poultry farms and agricultural infrastructure have been destroyed. The use of weaponry and the movement of tanks and military bulldozers during the Israeli offensive destroyed 14.6 percent of Gaza’s total agricultural land, according to the Palestinian National Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan for Gaza. Before 27 December there were about 16,997 hectares of agricultural land in Gaza, including about 1,214 hectares of greenhouses. The Plan estimates direct agricultural losses caused by the operation at about US$181 million and $88 in indirect losses. Buffer zone resources The buffer zone contains rain-fed crops including wheat, barley, beans and various vegetables, as well as olives, almonds and citrus trees, according to Gaza-based Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) officer, Ahmed Sourani. Most of Gaza’s animal production is concentrated in the zone, which also contains important infrastructure such as wells and roads, according to FAO. FAO says that even before the recent Israeli assault farmers faced difficulties using irrigation-water and had adapted production to rain-fed crops. Restricted access “I haven’t been able to access my farm since the war ended,” said orange and lemon farmer Yahya Hudar from Jabalyia, who owns three hectares, 1.3km from the border. “I can access my other farm [3km from the border], but I am in danger of being shot.” The ability of Gaza farmers to produce food and generate income has been reduced by restricted access, while Gaza’s people are forced to pay higher prices for scarce fresh food items, according to FAO. “After the war, if I go to my land [800m from the border] I am in danger of being shot by Israeli soldiers,” said farmer Samir Abu Gumboz from Shujayah, whose farm - 2.6 hectares of lemons, potatoes, tomatoes and a well - was destroyed during the offensive. “Israeli bulldozers cleared a path [600 metres from the border] between my crops in 2000 marking the zone,” said Gumboz. “Every few months they enter to re-clear the path… The area is completely bulldozed and considered a no-go zone, meaning anyone who enters is targeted by Israeli forces.” FAO, UN Development Programme teams and NGOs cannot access the area to conduct post-conflict assessments, or implement relief and development projects. It is unknown how much unexploded ordnance (UXO) remains on farmland. Reports of chemical weapons’ residues are being investigated by UN Mine Action teams (who are not permitted to speak to the press). Roughly two-thirds of the Gazan population is deemed food insecure, while unemployment is over 40 percent, according to FAO. es/ar/cb

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Early Warning, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Food Security [ENDS]

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Non-violent resistance wins battle in Khouza'a, Gaza Strip

31/3/2009



After yesterday's celebration of Land Day, this morning ISM Gaza Strip activists returned to accompany Palestinian farmers in the area of Khouza'a, east of Khan Younis where they were almost shot on the 24th of February. The fields that the farmers were harvesting today are far away from the Israeli watchtowers and about 400 meters from the Green Line. Despite this, the farmers had problems to harvest them on the two previous days that they tried because of shooting by Israeli troops. The work began at 7.40 am and about 25 minutes later two jeeps moved along the fence and approached the group of farmers and activists. The soldiers got out and start watching. It was obvious that the group was posing no threat to the soldiers. Most of the Palestinian farmers were middle-aged women. Most of the international solidarity activists were wearing fluorescent or Red Crescent vests. But after a while the Israeli soldiers started shooting. One of the ISM activists talked to them by megaphone but they continued shooting. But this time the Palestinian farmers resisted the attack, by ignoring the fire and continuing to work. And they won. The Israeli soldiers quit the attempt to expel the Palestinian farmers from their land and withdrew. Despite the intimidation of the Israeli soldiers, despite the fact that they could hear the intense battles between the Israeli occupation forces and the Palestinian resistance fighters (two of them killed and another two injured) further north, east of Al Meghazi camp, and they could watch the military helicopters and the F-16s, today, the Palestinian farmers, resisted and defended their rights on their land. Today they won the battle, tomorrow is another day

March 30: Land Day in Beit Hanoun

Posted on Tales to Tell

Setting off the Beit Hanoun Land Day march

Today was Land Day, celebrated every year in Palestine, commemorating the Palestinian love of the land and also those people who have died for it. Our friend S from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative invited us to join people in the Beit Hanoun area who were going to take direct action by walking into some farmland in their local stretch of border area - about 800 metres away from the Erez border crossing - and celebrate the day with dancing, bread-baking, and tending of a handful of young orange trees there (Israel has destroyed most of Gaza’s orchards.) Thankfully, nothing disturbed the festivities, except the sad sight of the destroyed houses there. Hope you enjoy the photos…

All dressed up ready to go

Beit Hanoun Local Initiative - the ones in the caps

Our friend S is the one with the hoe

Poem: I am a farmer, and this is my land...

Tending orange tree - Israeli checkpoint Erez in background

Dubke dance: S and K show them how it's done!

The audience

Singing traditional songs

Baking bread

...and the grass tastes good too

Smiling despite the destruction

MK Barakah calls Beit Hanoun on Land Day; urges continued struggle

Date: 30 / 03 / 2009 Time: 17:27

[Ma'anImages]

Gaza – Ma’an – Palestinian Knesset member Muhammad Barakah spoke to Beit Hanoun Land Day commemorators over the phone Monday, and encouraged them to continue their struggle for autonomy.

“We are struggling in a battle to prove our existence and to protect our confiscated lands,” Barakah told large crowds in the northern Gaza Strip town. He called for unity in the face of the latest Israeli policies to demolish homes in East Jerusalem and the continued blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Coordinator of the local initiative Saber Az-Za’anin called on ralliers to “remember those people who sacrificed their souls defending the nation and the land in A`rrabeh, Sakhnin and other Galilee areas: Khadija Shawahneh, Raja Abu Rayya, Muhsen Taha, Khader Khalaileh, Kher Yasin and Ra’fat Zuhdy.”

He thanked all who participated in the event, including several foreign peace activists, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as well as dozens of local and charitable societies.

Land Day 09 Beit Hanoun

A Palestinian farmer seriously injured by Israeli soldiers south of Gaza

Gaza, March 30, 2009 (RAMATTAN) – The Israeli army shot wounded on Monday a Palestinian citizen in the northern of Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said. A Palestinian health official told RAMATTAN that a Palestinian was seriously injured as the Israeli soldiers opened fire against a group of Palestinian farmers north of Gaza. After the end of Israel's 23-day offensive on Gaza two months ago, the Israeli army frequently violates the fragile ceasefire in Gaza and targets the Palestinian farmers, fishermen and the tunnels along the borderline between Gaza and Egypt.

posted in Al Mezan website on 30-3-2009 IOF Shoots Palestinian in Eastern Beit Hanoun At app. 7.30am, on 30 March 2009, the IOF opened fire at a group of young men who were close to the borderline in Al M'ghayir area, in the east of Beit Hanoun town. One Palestinian was injured and was reported to have sustained moderate injuries.

Speaking Truth to Power

Posted on the ISM webpage on: March 21, 2009

Sharon Lock | Tales to Tell

We were back at Faraheen this morning accompanying farmers again, eying the jeeps driving along the Israeli border while our farmers removed the irrigation pipes from one of the fields we have visited regularly. Since Mohammed was shot in the leg, the farmer here has decided to give up on this field, its convenient well, and its half-grown parsley crop - 200,000 shekels worth - in case of further injury or death of harvesters. It was a quiet morning, thank goodness.

Giving up on irrigating parsley too dangerous to pick

Art from children at the Al Amal Centre, Khan Younis

Tristan is conscious and was breathing on his own until he caught pneumonia. He has a long way to go and it’s not known what will be ahead - for sure, more surgery, including on his damaged right eye.

A second time this week we spotted an Israeli gun boat travelling at 3 miles from the shoreline, all the way from near Deira Balah to Gaza city (it kept pace with our shared taxi) as fishermen were out trying to get in a catch in, and inevitably the next day we heard that a fisherman had been shot; Deeb Al Ankaa who we understand to now be in Kamal Odwan hospital.

I met a great Manchester guy this week, Dr Sohail of MIST (Medical International Surgical Team) who has come here to do good work with peoples’ bones, for example working with amputees who have had limbs removed at a high point, to enable the otherwise impossible attachment of prosthetic limbs. (If Israel lets the prosthetics through the border, which apparently is another problem of the siege.)

Thinking about bones, I immediately thought of Wafa. After wincing at the picture of her in hospital the day after soldiers shot out her kneecap, Dr Sohail said “I’m a kneecap man!” and told me a series of incomprehensible surgical things he might be able to do to give her back some movement. We rang her family today while standing in the Faraheen field (it’s a good time to get your phone-calling done) to say that Dr Sohail will see her in June if I go and take a photo of her medical records for him beforehand.

Dr Sohail spoke of the several limitations medical people are under here - mostly no access to the latest equipment - if any gets in, no access to training on how to use it - and of course very little of the ongoing training amongst their international peers that people doing tricky surgical things need to have.

In the last days there have been renewed calls for an International Criminal Court investigation into war crimes in Gaza, including for example “white flag killings” by Israeli soldiers. One of the big problems that have got in the way are that during the attacks, there were no forensic pathologists in Gaza trained to a level that would meet the requirements. (They are trying to send some people outside for training now, ready for the next time…) A second big problem is that when the International Criminal Court representatives tried to get in through Rafah to investigate the situation, Egypt refused to let them through, so they missed the February 8 deadline for submitting evidence.

And it was never going to be easy. Here is an example. One of the Al Quds Red Crescent medics talked about getting through to some of the surviving Samouni kids trapped with dead adults, on the first Red Cross/Red Crescent evacuation permitted by Israel. He said the kids (who they found in circumstances that left some of the medics who reached them, traumatised themselves) said the adults had been shot, and they had covered over the bodies themselves.

The medics knew it was important to try to take the adults’ bodies out, but the children were starving, dehydrated, and in a state of collapse. Since Israel had not permitted the medics to take ambulances, and several miles had to be covered, the medics found a donkey cart for the children. The Red Cross asked Israel to be allowed to take a donkey to pull the cart, but Israel said no.

My medic friend says: “We put the children on the donkey cart and pulled it ourselves, hurrying to get out before 4pm which was the deadline for the evacuation. And there was no room for the bodies. So a lot of time passed before those bodies could be retrieved, and while we have the verbal testimony of the children, we don’t have an early medical assessment of the adults bodies.”

I was called in to PressTV to give an interview today about what I witnessed myself, and it turned out this is because Israeli soldiers have themselves started to admit some of what went on, in the Israeli press today. This has been covered by the TimesOnline, and the International Middle East Media Centre. It includes an anonymous solider who ’says that he was told “we should kill everyone there (Gaza). Everyone there is a terrorist.”‘

OCHA report 11-17/3/2009:

This is an extract from OCHA weekly report (11-17/3/2009) published on 19th of March.

Gaza Strip Update

Palestinian casualties

In various violent incidents during the
reporting period, the Israeli military injured
four Palestinian civilians, compared to six
civilians injured during the previous period.
Among those civilians injured this week
were two farmers, one fisherman and
another man injured during an incursion east
of Rafah. A total of ten Palestinians have
been killed and 40 others injured in Israeli-
Palestinian violence since the ceasefires
declared on 18 January 2009.

Restrictions on access to land and sea
continue

Israeli restrictions on Palestinian access to land
and sea inside the Gaza Strip continues to
severely damage livelihoods. These restrictions
include access of farmers to their land located
in the north and east along the border with
Israel, and access of fishermen to fishing areas
beyond three nautical miles from the shore.

Human rights workers to accompany farmers in Gaza

Posted on the ISM webpage: March 18, 2009

For Immediate Release

8am, Thursday 19th March 2009: Seven international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) will be accompanying Palestinian farmers in Al Basan Kabira, Al Faraheen, East of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
HRWs from Britain, Australia and Canada will be accompanying farmers on their lands 500m from the ‘Green Line’ as they attempt to retrieve irrigation pipes.

Palestinian farmers have been repeatedly been shot at by Israeli forces while working on their agricultural lands within 1km from the ‘Green Line’.

On the 18th February 2009 international HRWs witnessed the shooting of 20 year old Mohammad Il Ibrahim by Israeli forces. Mohammad was shot in the leg as he was loading parsley onto a truck approximately 550m from the Green Line. The farmers and internationals had been working for two hours in full view of the Israeli forces and were leaving the area at the time of shooting.
Mohammed al-Buraim is the fourth Palestinian farmer to be shot by Israeli forces in the ‘buffer zone’ in the last two months. Two of the four farmers shot died from their wounds.

On the 18th January 2009, 24 year old Maher Abu Rajileh from the village of Khoza’a was killed by Israeli forces while working his agricultural lands 400m from the Green Line. On the 27th January, Anwar al Buraim was shot in the neck by Israeli forces.

On 20 January, Israeli soldiers shot Waleed al-Astal (42) of Al Qarara (near Khan Younis) in his right foot.

Updated on March 19, 2009

PCHR: Palestinian civilian wounded in Central Gaza Strip, east of Al Maghazi

This is an extract of PCHR weekly report No. 10/2009 05- 11 March 2009

Tuesday, 10 March

At approximately 15:30, IOF troops positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip fired at Palestinian houses in the camp. As a result, Muhannad Sehi Abu Mandil, 24, was wounded by a gunshot to the left foot.