Settlements around Gaza Strip…Israel’s breadbasket looking for residents news

If the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip ends for 49 days, the vast majority of Israeli residents in the settlements in the Gaza Strip are unwilling to return to live in these settlements, because these areas will become weak links in the face of Israeli attacks. Palestinian resistance.

I would like a report from the British newspaper The Guardian, which includes interviews with families who fled from shelter settlements to the Red Sea coastal cities of Tel Aviv and Eilat on October 7 last year. These families do not expect to return again for some time to come.

The groups were made up of about 50 settlements and have since become known as the Gaza Strip, a name that has been mentioned frequently since the operation al aqsa floods Initiated by the Palestinian resistance movement, the forefront of which Qassam Brigade The military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The population of the Gaza Strip, which has grown from more than 60,000 to more than 200,000, including some nearby towns and neighborhoods hit by Palestinian resistance missiles, is now either displaced, either in Tel Aviv or in hotels and resorts in Eilat.

In addition to being Israel’s first line of defense against the Gaza Strip, these settlements are also major suppliers to the Israeli crop and livestock markets.

Important patch

Data from the Israeli Farmers Union illustrates the importance of land in the Gaza Strip to agricultural food security in the Israeli market.

According to the federation, 75% of vegetables consumed in Israel come from the Gaza Strip, along with 20% of fruits and 6.5% of milk.

The area surrounding the Gaza Strip is known as the “Israeli vegetable patch” and is home to poultry and livestock farms in addition to fish farms.

For decades, Israel has imposed tight restrictions on Palestinian land across from the Gaza Strip, preventing Palestinian farmers from developing their land and exposing these areas to Israeli bombing during every military operation against the Gaza Strip.

Although the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture has announced a full commitment to support envelope farms in Gaza, allocating 2.5 million shekels ($625,000) to support farmers, past experience among farmers suggests they may not be able to return there in the future.

Farmers in settlements in the Gaza Strip have complained that the Ministry of Agriculture has not fulfilled its promises. It had previously promised to provide them with support worth 770 million shekels as part of an import tariff reform, but they have not received it.

population regeneration

The Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is concerned about the seriousness of the settlers’ statement that their return to cover towns is not an option, but that one would offer financial incentives and tax exemptions to those who wish to return.

Israel has implemented this step more than once to encourage Israelis to live in settlements established on West Bank land over the past three decades.

Although there is another hypothesis, which is not supported by many experts in Israel, it is to convert the entire covered area into agricultural land and housing sites for more than 25,000 Asian workers active in the agricultural sector.

As the conflict with the Gaza Strip breaks out, employers complain of labor scarcity and abundance, with most Asian workers returning to their home countries, the Israel Broadcasting Corporation and Israel’s Globe newspaper reported. in the agricultural field.