APAwire - APAwire CLIENTS ONLY, Gaza - 15 June 2022. Palestinian children plant trees on a street in Gaza city during a summer camp.
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: APAwire CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST: APAwire - APAwire CLIENTS ONLY, Gaza - 15 June 2022. Palestinian children plant trees on a street in Gaza city during a summer camp. 0.1 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Shaher Al-Rifi, Director of the Nursery Sector at the Ministry of Agriculture. 0.2 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Natalie Abu Shahla, General Manager of Kindergarten Baby Home. 0.3 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Hoda Mohamed, a child participating in the camp. STORYLINE: In Gaza, half of the cultivable area … [is] inaccessible.” according to a 2012 UN report. Palestinians in Gaza also face immense agricultural restrictions and environmental destruction. While the occupation no longer has settlements in Gaza, and does not apply the Ottoman Land Code, agriculture is severely limited. These limitations keep Gazans dependent on the few imports Israel allows through the blockade imposed since 2007. Years of bombings on the 360 km2 strip, where two million people live, have destroyed much of Gaza’s water and agricultural infrastructure, and left substantial environmental contamination. Rebuilding is nearly impossible given the embargo on construction materials. The occupation also enforces a militarised “buffer zone” on 40% of the Gaza Strip’s fertile land, where farmers risk being killed for planting. Low flying planes spray herbicides on the buffer zone to enforce its sterility. Gaza’s coastline has also become militarised. Historically, fish made up a large, protein-rich part of Gazan diets, but a nautical buffer zone has left fishers with access to just 15% of the Mediterranean. The destruction of the agricultural sector and the blockade on imports have eroded any sense of food sovereignty and forced 47% of Gazans into food insecurity. The MTC provides fruit trees to Gaza and also works to supplement the macronutrients missing in many Gazans’ diets by distributing flocks of chic
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