Why kill chickens? Why break the irrigation equipment? Why sabotage reservoirs?

Hamas indiscriminately killed people on October 7. That we know. Less known is how they systematically targeted agricultural infrastructure.

Danielle Abraham, who heads ReGrow Israel, a UJA grantee, explains what motivated this spiteful brand of “agro-terrorism.”

The Western Negev, Israel’s breadbasket, produces 70% of the nation’s vegetables, 20% of the fruit, 6.5% of the dairy. Along with disrupting national security, Hamas terrorists had planned to instigate food insecurity.

Danielle explains how Hamas recognized on some level that Zionism is about Jewish connection to the land. “It’s not a theoretical connection. It’s about working the land, making the desert bloom — and they wanted to break our connection,” she says. 

Hamas failed. Because despite the devastation, the Jewish connection to the land is stronger than ever. 

Danielle credits farmers as the heroes in this story. 

Like Motti from Be’eri, a veteran of the war in Lebanon, who returned to the kibbutz within days of the attack, even while Hamas fighters were still present, to care for the livestock.

Now, UJA’s funding to ReGrow will help the agriculture sector come back stronger.

“Out of every catastrophe — and this is beyond our worst nightmares — we see the opportunity to once again regain our pride in agriculture,” Danielle says. 

Israel will bloom even greener and more abundantly than ever before.