Gilad Farm in the Dark
Gilad Farm in the DarkIsrael news photo: Miriam Tzachi

The 28 families of the Gilad Farm, in the Shomron (Samaria), are facing a painful shortage of fuel for their generator this winter – and last night, a string of explosives was found outside the farm.

The Gilad Farm is located on private property owned by Moshe and Yael Zar, whose son Gilad was murdered in a drive-by terrorist shooting attack several years ago. The farm is situated between Yitzhar and Kedumim, in the heart of the Biblical Shomron district.

Ilana Shimon, mother of seven who moved to Gilad Farm four years ago when she fell in love with it after a short visit, explained the latest problem to Israel National News: “We are not hooked up to the Israel Electric Company, for unknown reasons, and we have to fuel our generator with diesel fuel. Every winter we suffer from a shortage, because the costs are just too high. It costs over 1,400 shekels a day to run the generator – money that regular citizens of the country don’t have to pay because they are hooked up to the electric company.”

Arab Village is Hooked Up
Coincidentally or not, it was announced today that the Civil Administration will hook up the Arab village of Um Reihan next week to the Israel Electric Company. The Administration announced that the step is being taken as a “humanitarian act toward the residents.” Um Reihan, with 500 residents, is located in the Jenin District, in Area C, which is fully controlled by Israel and not the Palestinian Authority.

“We have had four new babies born here over the past few weeks,” Ilana continued, “and it is very difficult to run our homes and care for our children when we have to limit ourselves to one electric appliance at a time. Two nights this week we did not have electricity at all!”

She said that two generous private citizens recently made nice donations, “and my husband and I went door to door in Givat Shmuel [across from Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak] this week to raise some money… The truth is, though, that in every other way, we live in paradise here – amidst nature, in the heart of our homeland, not in an apartment building but rather in a small caravan – and I wouldn’t give it up for anything.”

Ilana can be contacted at 052-558-3372 (+97252-558-3372, from abroad) or by email <[email protected]>.

'We Won't Be Weakened'
“Our hold on this site,” the farm’s website states, “is for the purpose of actualizing our rights to the Land of Israel, to inform the People of Israel and the entire world that all attempts to weaken us will not work. We pray to the Master of the Universe that He will help us and strengthen the nation’s spirit to overcome its enemies from within and without.”

The explosive devices were found around 1:30 this morning by an IDF patrol, and were neutralized in a controlled explosion about an hour later. Gilad Farm’s spokesman told Arutz-7 that the army tends to play down such incidents: “The security situation here is getting worse. Firebombs have been thrown on the road to Gilad – and I believe that this is connected to the left-wing groups that are riling up the Arabs against the Jews here… The army only announces attacks when Arabs or soldiers are hurt; the fact that the IDF did not release an announcement regarding this string of explosives is not coincidental.”

In response to a query, the IDF said that the explosives were not genuine, and that not every incident of this sort has to be reported to the media.