Crop planes near Gaza forbidden

Transportation Ministry bans crop duster flights near Strip for fear planes will be shot down by Palestinians. Furious farmers in south protest, saying damages could reach $11 million. Gaza terror group says it can hit anything that moves

Shmulik Hadad|Published: 03.18.07 , 19:24

Fear of attack on agricultural aircraft near Gaza has prompted the Transportation Ministry to forbid such flights, causing rage among local farmers.

The initial order to ban flights in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council came from the IDF a few days ago, and according to evaluations that such planes were at risk.

One of the worst case scenarios presented by the IDF was that an Israeli crop duster would be shot down over the Gaza Strip and the pilot would be taken captive.

IDF sources stressed that this order was mean to put as few pilots as possible at risk.

"The situation in the (Gaza) Strip is complicated and delicate; there is certainly motivation to harm Israeli targets. A civil aircraft can be an easy target, and therefore full precautions should be taken," said an IDF source, who added that the order was not limited in time, and would change according to evaluations.

The IDF refused to comment on the types of weapons the terror organizations hold that may be used for bringing down crop planes, but said that with their weapon smuggling abilities and motivation to attack, the Palestinian threat was clear.

$11 million loss for farmers

"This order is really terrifying, since it differentiates between the blood of a pilot and the blood of a farmer, who can continue working near the border and be exposed to shootings," the Council's head Alon Schuster told Ynet.

The Transportations Ministry's spokesperson Avner Ovadia said, "The Transportation Ministry's security branch occasionally acts according to evaluations it receives, according to which it has been decided to forbid take offs or aircraft flights in these areas."

This is not the first time such an order is given, but every past order was dropped at the last minutes, since the military sent helicopters to back up the crop dusters.

This time, the Ministry is insisting not to allow the spraying, and the furious farmers claim this will cost them over NIS 50 million (about $11 million) in damages.

Haim Yalin, head of the Regional Council's Kibbutz Nahal Oz said, "This is great economic damage. This area lives on its potato and wheat exports. We have already planted next fall's seeds, if we do not spray now, we will have to buy seeds from Scotland and Holland."

Yalin said that at this point it would be impossible to spray manually or using tractors. "We have already been waiting to spray for four days and are losing precious time since after the rain there are several types of pests that harm the growing crop, and if we do not spray fertilizers and pesticides now –the blow will be very harsh."

Yalin added that this would not just cause economic damage, but damage to the State's image, "Which is actually protecting the Air Force pilots and crop pilots, but is neglecting the farmers working here day and night right near the fence. This harms the farmers' morale, which is already down."

Kibbutz heads and Schuster have been attempting to reason with the relevant bodies on the matter, with no success. "They allow farmers and tractors to work as usual near the fence, but they are actually telling us that the State cannot cope with a plane falling, this is apparently too much for them. This is outrageous and very upsetting," said Schuster.

Another Kibbutz head, Meir Yifrah, told Ynet, "There are no subtle words to explain this order. This means abandoning hundreds of dunums of fields and crops. Instead of us living in security, we are forced to abandon our fields."

'We can hit anything that moves'

In response to the new order, Popular Resistance Committees' spokesperson Muhammad Abd al-Aal said that his organization would not hesitate to hit anything in its reach.

"We can hit or intercept anything that moves in our zone, be it in the sea, on land, or in the air. There is no civil use in Israel, and all their tools and recourses are eventually translated into part of their military aggression.

"The Israeli Shin Bet head admitted that we have much more sophisticated weapons. We are constantly getting ready for the big confrontation with the enemy."