Radical leftist groups, including the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, and Adalah wrote to Prime Minister Netanyahu, the Military Advocate General and the Attorney General, demanding that they refrain from spraying pesticides from the air into the Gaza Strip and near its territory.
"This action causes severe damage to agricultural crops and endangers the health of Gaza residents," they asserted.
The letter emphasizes that these actions are destructive and prohibited, harm human rights and are contrary to Israeli and international law. "Contrary to Israel's official position, according to which the army carries out the spraying only over Israeli territory, farmers at the site testify that the spraying planes are spraying inside the Gaza Strip."
"Even if the spraying is carried out only inside Israeli territory, the spraying materials flow into the Gaza Strip, causing serious damage to agricultural crops within the Gaza Strip and disproportionate losses to the farmers in Gaza, and therefore there is no justification or legal basis for continuing the destructive practice."
According to the groups, the Ministry of Defense admitted that the pesticides contain Glyphosate (“Roundup”), declared by the World Health Organization as cancer-causing and forbidden from use by many countries around the world.
The organizations concluded by demanding that "no spraying operations be carried out in the area of the Gaza Strip, and that other proportional measures be used, within Israeli territory only, which do not harm the farmers in the Gaza Strip and their crops and endanger their health.”