Gaza farmers dodge bullets to harvest crops
Although the truce that ended the 2014 Gaza war is still in force, the Israeli army has recently escalated its actions against farmers in the buffer zone between the Strip and Israel.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian farmer Ramadan al-Masry faced fear and anxiety as he harvested wheat and barley earlier this month on his land east of Gaza City, his eyes closely watching the movement of Israeli soldiers deployed along the border.
Angst seems to be the name of the game for Palestinian farmers within the buffer zone between Gaza and Israel, which measures 300 meters (328 yards) inside the Gaza border. Farmers fear what they say is constant shooting from Israeli forces openly defying a truce agreement signed in August 2014 between the Palestinian resistance and Israel in a bid to end the 2014 war on Gaza.
On May 1, Israeli Army Radio announced that the Israeli army would allow Gaza farmers to access areas close to the border to harvest their crops, in cooperation with the United Nations in the Gaza Strip under supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Despite this understanding, however, Israeli forces continued shooting once in a while. On May 12, they fired on farmers and workers harvesting wheat in Khuza’a, east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
