Gaza's beekeepers battle to revive hives amid ruined fields and blocked farms

Gaza's beekeeping community, once managing around 30,000 hives and producing 400 metric tons of honey annually, now operates with roughly 700 hives after more than two years of war. Agricultural engineer and beekeeper Rateb Sammour estimates current honey output at only ten percent of its former level. The destruction of fields and a ceasefire-enforced “yellow line” that bars entry to orchards have pushed beekeepers to set up colonies on rooftops and use sugar feeds where natural forage is absent.

Ibrahim al-Dabba, who paid over 10,000 shekels for three hives, and 32-year-old Fahd al-Dahdouh, who repairs salvaged hive parts in Nuseirat, illustrate the desperate measures taken to keep the pollinators alive. The sector’s collapse compounds Gaza’s broader humanitarian crisis, where most of the 2 million residents live in damaged housing with limited access to food and resources. The situation also highlights the environmental toll of the conflict, as bees—crucial for pollination—struggle to survive in a landscape of rubble.