Gaza Olive Harvest Suffers Under The Blockade
Zaytoun on December 2nd, 2008From Reliefweb - 27 November 2008
Oxfam’s Mohammed Ali Abu Najela reports on the impact of Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip on the territory’s olive oil industry.
The agricultural sector in Gaza has been severely affected by the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in 2000, 112,000 olive trees have been destroyed in the Gaza Strip by the conflict and Israeli military incursions. Also, one third of agricultural land - thousands of dunums (1 dunum=.25 acre) along the border with Israel - has been inaccessible to Palestinian farmers since Israeli settlements were dismantled in 2005. Israel then carved out a security zone that included valuable Gazan farming land. Farmers have been killed and injured trying to access and cultivate these lands.
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