Gaza’s Palestinians Play Agricultural Tit-for-Tat with Israel

Gaza version of the Agriculture Ministry has enacted a boycott of Israeli fruits and vegetables in retaliation for Israel’s shutting down the export of Gaza-grown fruit and vegetables to the West Bank and globally through the Kerem Shalom crossing point – the place through which commercial goods are routed. Many have noted that the ones to suffer from the twin edicts are the Gaza Strip’s farmers who are already suffering hardships. But the Hamas-run government believes ending imports from Israel will cause Israeli farmers some hardships of their own. In terms of quantity, Gaza has been exporting 200 tons of fruit and vegetables daily compared to the 4,000 tons Israel ships to Gaza. In a move designed to cause sufficient hardship to the Gazan population to get them to get officials to end the siege of incendiary kites, Prime Minister suspended all but humanitarian transfers through the crossing point.