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farmers

A married couple from Thailand, known as Qwon, left, and Tay, participate in the Shavuot celebration in Shavei Zion, Western Galilee, where they work in the avocado groves, on May 21, 2026. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
July 11, 2026, 9:35 am
Braving war losses and tough conditions, Thai workers stay rooted in Israeli agriculture
51 foreign laborers from Thailand have been killed by terror groups since 2023, and 31 were among the Oct. 7 hostages, but that hasn’t caused them to flee Israel’s fields and groves
By Diana Bletter
Palestinian boys look toward a young Israeli settler after their soccer ball, kicked beyond a barbed-wire fence surrounding a small pitch near the Carmel settlement, was taken away in the West Bank Bedouin village of Umm al-Khair, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
June 12, 2026, 2:56 pm
UN alleges record levels of settler violence in the West Bank this year
Meanwhile, Palestinian farmers claim IDF project to prevent smuggling and terror attacks has damaged their water infrastructure
By AFP and ToI Staff
Illustrative image of Holstein dairy cows. (JackF, iStock by Getty Images)
May 12, 2026, 10:13 pm
Farmers urge policy shift on foot-and-mouth outbreak as farms become overcrowded
Calling for new risk assessment and financial compensation, co-op says new Agriculture Ministry guidelines take the wrong approach
By Sue Surkes
Ofer Moskovitz stands in his avocado grove on March 12, 2026, overlooking the border with Lebanon. (Courtesy)
March 16, 2026, 10:41 am
As Hezbollah strongholds crop back up, northern farmers regrow destroyed fields
While there are plans to help rejuvenate Upper Galilee agriculture decimated during the 2023-2024 war, locals duck incoming rockets and missiles amid another conflict with Iran
By Jessica Steinberg
Levav Weinberg, a farmer in Metula, stands in his apple orchard with a view of the border with Lebanon and Kafr Kila, once a Hezbollah stronghold, in the background, on September 18, 2025. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
September 22, 2025, 2:00 pm
In war-ravaged northern Israel, farmers replant apple trees hoping for sweeter years ahead
With some 99,000 acres of farmland in the north destroyed during the Hezbollah conflict, growers face a bittersweet return as they judge whether to save orchards or start from scratch
By Diana Bletter
Hezi Mena spots the first blossom on a kiwi tree in his orchard on Margaliot, northern Israel, on March 26, 2025. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
April 3, 2025, 8:10 am
As north recovers from fighting, farmers bring war-ravaged fields back to life
Growers uprooted by months of rocket attacks and others who dug in despite the danger are salvaging their lands, but some fear a tense truce with Hezbollah won’t hold for long
By Diana Bletter
Moshe Weinstein, 76, an Israeli farmer, touches the ladder used by his son Omer at the site of his killing by shrapnel from a rocket launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon, at his apple farm in Metula, northern Israel, December 1, 2024. (REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov)
December 3, 2024, 7:40 pm
Israeli farmer who lost son to Hezbollah rocket tries to restore his orchard
‘I came and saw the worst thing possible to see,’ says Moshe Weinstein, who found his son, along with four Thai workers, lying dead in his apple orchard
By Reuters and ToI Staff
Neighbors attempt to douse fires after a rocket attack on a house in Netiv Hashayara on October 24, 2024. (Margalit Boyarsky)
October 25, 2024, 4:45 pm
Resolutely rooted war-time farmers work together to douse Hezbollah rocket flames
At an agricultural village 15km from the Lebanon border, after a Soviet Grad directly hits a Western Galilee house, residents race to put out fires — and replant avocado orchards
By Diana Bletter
Farmers from the Golan Heights demonstrate with colleagues from all over Israel against the war and the security of the borders in a convoy of agricultural trucks, Kibbutz Mevo Hama, southern Golan Heights , February 22, 2024. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
June 16, 2024, 8:21 pm
Loan org, Leket food bank, partner to offer farmers credit to cope with war effects
Tracks offer 3% fixed interest rate on loans of up to NIS 300,000 over five years, or prime-rated loans of up to NIS 1 million over a decade, plus help with planning, mentorships
By Sue Surkes
Illustrative: Haredi Jews visit Israeli soldiers to show their support as they deploy at a position near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 11, 2023. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)
February 9, 2024, 2:12 pm
Daily Briefing Feb. 9: Day 126 – As IDF aims to extend draft time, will Haredim join?
Environmental correspondent Sue Surkes looks at Haredi draft and current rainfall, as Arab affairs reporter Gianluca Pacchiani discusses Gazans and Iranian art
By ToI Staff
David Levy, General Manager of the Israel Association of Field Crop Growers. (Courtesy David Levy)
February 7, 2024, 1:20 pm
Winter showers boost wheat crop, but water worries continue to stalk farmers
Downpours over last two weeks are welcomed in Israel’s northern Negev breadbasket, but drops will need to keep falling for next two months to avoid poor harvest, say cultivators
By Sue Surkes
Picking persimmons in Rishpon in December 2023 (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
December 31, 2023, 10:01 am
Volunteers’ efforts bear fruit, but war-hit farmers would prefer professionals
With thousands of foreign field hands having fled, it’s taking too long to pick the season’s lemons, oranges, persimmons, avocados and strawberries, and some owners are despairing
By Jessica Steinberg
Illustrative: A strawberry farm near the city of Netanya, on February 20, 2022. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)
December 17, 2023, 6:26 pm
Volunteers help Arab Israeli farmers suffering from labor shortage amid war in Gaza
Jews and Arabs from Haifa head to Baqa al-Gharbiya to aid agriculture workers as Palestinian West Bank workers barred from entering Israel, Thai laborers have fled country
By AFP and ToI Staff
Benny Anderman stands in a greenhouse next to vines of rotten red bell peppers, Moshav Talmei Eliyahu, November 15, 2023. (Mati Wagner / The Times of Israel)
November 24, 2023, 10:35 am
As crops wither, farmers say fields will soon be barren without foreign workers
Volunteers help ease the agricultural sector’s devastation since Oct. 7, but as skilled manpower shortages take root throughout the country, farmers lose hope
By Mati Wagner
Illustrative: The fields of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, on the border of the Gaza Strip, where smoke rises in the distance. (Amir Tibon)
November 12, 2023, 12:40 am
Urban Israelis flock to Gaza border to tend farms left suddenly without workers
With many residents from the southern communities evacuated or called up to reserve duty, thousands of volunteers are heeding the call to help farmers pick vegetables and milk cows
By Eliyahu Freedman
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