Gaza farmers caught in front line

Three months of deadly incursions inside Gaza's eastern border have seen the landscape along the strip redrawn and farmers' livelihoods crushed as Hamas and Israel have battled for control of crucial strategic lands. Israeli raids, led by bulldozers and tanks, have leveled large swaths of farming land in the three months since a full-scale incursion in March, destroying, according to Palestinian Authority estimates, close to 140,000 lemon, olive and orange trees. A total of 71 homes have been destroyed in the same time, with 290 damaged, the Interior Ministry claims. Most are in the front lines of often nightly clashes between Israeli commando units and militants based along the strip's eastern fringe. Arbid Ahtea had called the farmlands of eastern Gaza home for all of his 67 years until an Israeli bulldozer came rumbling through his house on Monday. His tiny house is now in ruins and he is sleeping in a makeshift tin shed, while trying to repair the hoses linking water wells to his farm land. Next door, the Chamali family in the village of Johor Rabiq claim they have been ruined by the latest raid, which Palestinian officials claim destroyed 36 wells in the area, most of them on the family's land. Mohammed Chamali said he had replanted his trees twice after earlier sweeps of his land, but with his oldest fruit-bearing trees now bulldozed, would not risk trying again. "[Militant groups] do not hit Israeli land from this area," he said, pointing out the wide, barren expanse of Palestinian land in the foreground and Israeli pastures beyond. "There is already no cover for them here and there hasn't been a rocket fired from anywhere near here for more than two years." Rocket fire is almost exclusively confined to the north and south of Gaza's border with Israel, areas that have also paid a heavy price in retaliation. White flags fly above the chicken factories and harvest points along the border -- in stark contrast to the colors of militant groups that fly above most buildings in the strip. The emerald green of Hamas is still the predominant standard, 2 1/2 years after the crippling siege of Gaza was launched in the wake of the group's election win. "They are killing the economy in Gaza," said Chamali, 58. "What did we do to starve and die as farmers? Our people in Ramallah are not helping us. Between me and my [two] brothers, we are supporting 80 people. "In all my time on this land we have never seen a catastrophe like we had this month. "I accepted that they imposed a siege for political reasons but that they are destroying everything that the people need to survive is beyond imagination." Ahtea sits weeping on his donkey cart as he explains he can no longer provide for his nine daughters, four sons and their families. "This is all I had," he cried. "God help us all." Further south along the strip, a man who called himself Abu Mohammed pointed out his partially demolished home, which Israeli forces had entered the day before. They had left a Star of David scratched into what was left of the rear wall, which is now being held up by support beams. Abu Mohammed was blindfolded and taken into Israel for questioning on June 3, along with 15 other men from his village. All were released six hours later. This is life here these days he says, standing on leveled olive tree branches. The front line is nothing like it used to be.