Agricultural Relief monitored the occupation´s efforts to open dams that collect rainwater towards agricultural lands in the Shejaiya area, east of Gaza, through new ferries in addition to the previously existing ones.
The opening of the dams resulted in the sinking of agricultural dunums, as the water level in agricultural areas reached approximately 1.5-2 meters, and the water flowing from the dams reached very long distances within the agricultural lands in the eastern region.
Farmer Fayez Sukkar (42 years old), who is one of the four brothers affected by the opening of the dams, says that it is the first time that the water of the dams has reached new areas that have not been damaged before as a result of opening new ferries, in addition to that he was previously damaged in January 2020 for the same reason, and he received support From agricultural relief with production inputs to enable it to cultivate again and reintegrate it into the agricultural process.
Hammad Al-Khisi, 60, says that it is the second time that his crops are completely submerged, including squash, okra and fagus, as a result of opening dams and flooding his land and exposing him to new losses in addition to the accumulated debts as a result of the continuous violations that the region is exposed to.
In turn, the Director of Agricultural Relief in the Gaza Strip, Engineer Tayseer Muheisen, said that heavy losses were caused to farmers who benefit from agricultural relief interventions in the region as a result of the opening of dams, as some of them were completely destroyed their lands and crops, and the other part was limited to their losses only in the irrigation and plowing networks.
He called on the Palestinian Authority, the international community and the United Nations to protect farmers, work to compensate them, and put pressure on the occupation to stop the continuous violations of farmers´ rights, and to respect international laws and relevant agreements.
The Advocacy and Media Coordinator for Agricultural Relief, Noha Al-Sharif says that the occupation forces have built dams along the border strip of the Gaza Strip, to prevent the natural flow of rainwater into the Palestinian lands, and divert it to flow into the Israeli aquifer, thus depriving the Palestinians of the most important source of feeding the aquifer in light of the worsening situation The livelihood of farmers in light of the crises and disasters that the agricultural sector is exposed to, coinciding with the Corona crisis.
Al-Sharif stated that a large part of the land is actually farm during the winter season, which increased the size of the damage as a result of the operational costs that were paid to prepare the land and prepare it for cultivation and buy seedlings from the nurseries, in addition to the fact that rainwater takes a long time to evaporate and that the soil absorption of it causes rotting. the roots.
It is noteworthy that the Israeli occupation frequently opens dams annually in the eastern regions, which leads to the surge of water in large quantities that floods farmers´ crops and inflicts severe damage on them and agricultural lands.
