Israel’s Wartime Farmers Are Relearning How to Plow Without GPS

When a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah went into effect in late November, 67-year-old Itzhik Cohen was finally able to take in the damage to the fields in Adamit, his kibbutz in a mountainous, windswept area in northern Israel less than a mile from the Lebanese border. The kibbutz’s residents were forced to evacuate because of the Hezbollah rocket barrage that began after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. While some farmworkers were able to access the fields periodically, it wasn’t enough to keep the peach orchards from shriveling; they’ll need to be uprooted and replaced. The mango crops were consumed by a bacterial infection. A rocket landed in the vineyard, setting off a fire that destroyed years of work. Miles of new greenhouses were overrun with 6-foot-tall weeds. Some neglected groves abutting the border are heavy with ripe avocados, but the farmers missed the export deadline and can only sell them at a loss. Israeli military sappers are still scouring the fields for unexploded ordnance.

Adamit remains mostly abandoned. Cohen says he’s concerned that families with young children will never feel safe enough to come back, threatening the community’s long-term viability. But his short-term focus is the fields. “This will take five years to rehabilitate,” he says, standing in the orchard. By Cohen’s estimate, the financial losses from the peaches alone are probably more than $500,000, and that doesn’t even include the cost of replanting the trees. He’s preparing the kibbutz’s claim for compensation for war damages with the government, but he doesn’t expect to be made whole.