Israeli Farms and Farmers Hit Hard by the War

Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack targeted Israel’s Western Negev, source of a quarter of the nation’s agricultural production.

Momentum Unity volunteers pick kohlrabi in Israel in January 2024. Courtesy of Bethann Johnston

MOSHAV AMI'OZ, Israel—The Oct. 7, 2023, attack and the ensuing war have cost Asher Tamsut a fortune. Still, he’s less interested in talking about his fallow fields and lost agricultural production than he is in delineating the war’s true cost to him: his family’s peace of mind.

His wife and three children, two daughters and a son, fled their home after Hamas’s attack, which killed 1,200 Israelis, saw 240 more taken hostage, wounded thousands more, and forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.