Gaza farmers want guarantees Israel won’t destroy their lands
Farmers in Gaza are fed up with replanting their battered lands only for Israel to destroy them, and want negotiators in Egypt to guarantee their security.
KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip — Farmers in the border areas in the east of the Gaza Strip are voicing concerns over a renewed Israeli war. They fear the imposition of a buffer zone of up to 300 meters (328 yards) if no final agreement is reached with the resistance factions. Talks will take place during negotiations scheduled later this month in Cairo.
The state of calm, which has prevailed in the eastern regions since the announcement of the truce on Aug. 26, was not enough for farmers to rehabilitate their land because of fears of their being damaged again. The border lands are the first to be harmed in the event of a land invasion and the first victim of every Israeli war.
Khaled al-Batsh, a leader of Islamic Jihad and participant in the Cairo negotiations, was more blunt regarding the buffer zone: “There is no buffer zone,” Batsh said.
The Islamic Jihad leader told Al-Monitor that the 2014 truce “confirmed the 2012 agreement concerning Israel’s withdrawal to the zero limits,” implying there would be no Israeli buffer zone inside Gaza.
