A plague . . .

I've seen news reports for a few days now that a medium-sized swarm of locusts was making its way up from Egypt in the direction of the Gaza Strip. Some hoped that the swarm would give up or perish on the long journey through the Sinai desert. However, despite our best hopes, a colleague came into our office this morning, carrying this little fellow. It has been confirmed that farmlands in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip have been hit.

This will be a serious blow to the farmers who are already struggling to make ends meet. It is estimated that 35 per cent of the arable land in the Gaza Strip is located in the so-called "buffer zone", which is unilaterally imposed by Israel and enforced with the use of live fire. In fact, people have been shot at, injured, and killed anywhere up to 1,500m from the border.

Israel recently confirmed the terms of the November ceasefire regarding access for Palestinians to land and sea in the border areas, by slipping it into a news update about gas canisters being allowed into the Gaza Strip for the first time in a decade. According to these terms, people may access the land up to 100m from the border fence, and the nautical mile limit has been increased to six nautical miles. Despite this, people are still at risk when they attempt to access land or sea in the border area.

These restrictions have a severe impact on the ability of farmers and fishermen to eke out a living. Even if farmers are able to gain access to their lands, which is yet to be confirmed in practice, the types of crops they can plant will be limited, since Israel insists on maintaining visibility in the border areas. Israeli tanks and bulldozers regularly carry out incursions into the Gaza Strip, bulldozing and levelling tracts of Palestinian land.