Israel has sprayed Palestinian farms with poisonous gases that damaged crops, Qudsnet reported farmers saying yesterday.

Poisonous gases were sprayed on Wednesday but their effects started to appear on the crops on Saturday and Sunday.

“When I arrived on my farm on Wednesday morning, I was surprised when I saw an Israeli farming plane crossing the borders towards farms inside Gaza,” farmer Ahmed Badawi said. “The plane started to spray unidentified chemicals.”

“My farm is 400 metres from the border and I planted several kinds of vegetables. Two days after the Israeli planes sprayed the chemicals, negative effects started to appear on the plants.”

Mahmoud Dalloul, another farmer in a different area near the border, said that this was not the first time that the Israeli occupation sprayed poisonous chemicals on their plants.

“In addition to the repeated demolition of our structures and facilities on the ground,” Dalloul said, “the Israeli occupation destroys our crops from the air.”

Badawi expected major losses after Israel damaged his plants, according Qudsnet. “Losses of my crops are expected to exceed more than $25,000,” he said.

Dalloul also said that he expects major losses this season. “We lost everything during the latest offensive on Gaza that took place last summer,” he said. “Now, we are losing another season.”

(Middle East Monitor)