The booms of military clashes between the IDF and Hamas could be heard from Gaza seven kilometers (4.3 miles) to the west of the Talmei Eliyahu agricultural collective as a dozen volunteers dutifully lined up for work outside the entrance of a large greenhouse on November 15.
“Thank you for coming. I’ll show you what to do,” said Eli Pereg, a tanned and affable farmer who smiled as he handed red paring shears to the workers, ranging in age from 14 to 74.
This particular group of volunteers, one of many arriving daily to lend a hand to farmers across the nation reeling from the fallout of Hamas’s October 7 massacre, left their homes in Ma’ale Adumim at 5:15 a.m. to begin work at Talmei Eliyahu at 8:30 a.m. — after morning prayers and a quick breakfast.
“I feel like I have to do something to help these farmers,” said Benny Anderman, 74. “Better to be here than sitting around the house.” But the putrid stench that greeted Anderman and the others from 6,000 square meters (roughly 65,000 square feet) of bell peppers rotting on their vines was testimony to the extent of the loss resulting from Hamas’s onslaught.
Read more at timesofisrael.com