Hezbollah operation puts 'Metulla' fruit factory out of service
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Hezbollah's retaliation operation has severely damaged the occupation's agriculture sector with the latest hitting the "Metulla" settlement's fruit factory hard.
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Israeli occupation flags above a fruit store at a market, in occupied Palestine Monday, April 17, 2023. (AP)
The general director of the "Metulla" settlement's fruit factory Benny Katz revealed today that the anti-tank missile launched from Lebanon on February 22 has caused severe damage to the factory, which is expected to lead to a surge in prices and result in huge economic damage and loss to in "Israel".
The Israeli website Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Katz as saying that the factory used to produce 24,000 tons of fresh fruit annually, however, the hit rendered it entirely dysfunctional and unfixable, describing the situation as "very terrible".
Referencing the closing of the factory on October 7, Katz said this was unprecedented for the 50-year-old factory, stressing that this led to severe economic damage that could not be estimated.
Katz's comments highlight the intense damage caused by Hezbollah's continuous operations on Israeli settlements and sites in northern occupied Palestine since October 8 in support of Gaza and the Palestinian Resistance, shedding light on their impact, especially in terms of how they forced Israeli settlers to flee and affected the occupation's economy as a whole, further pressuring it.
What value does this factory hold to the occupation?
According to Israeli media, the fruit factory produces tens of thousands of tons of fresh fruits for Israeli settlers amounting to 24,000 tons of all kinds.
Katz also revealed that the factory provides refrigeration from the end of the agricultural season until the following one. He stressed that "Israel" has signed trade and import deals with many countries across the world, which Hezbollah stopped by hitting the factory that hosts all kinds of fruit carts from Europe, the US, and China, among other parts of the world, thus, diminishing its revenue.
He added that when the settlers left the orchards last October, the fruits were left behind on trees until they eventually fell or rotted not having anyone to harvest them.
Katz further expressed concern in the budget plan he submitted to the property tax division regarding the upcoming agricultural season in 2024, which, he believes, will most likely not take place due to the possibility of the continuation of the war until June.
He added that there is a severe deficiency in fruit in the entire occupied northern front as the farmers are imprisoned in fear of tending to "their farms" to the extent, in his opinion, that they will fail to identify the occupied land they were using after the war.
This deficiency in fruit means that it will be missing from most supermarkets, which, in turn, will cause an inevitable surge in prices, he emphasized.
Falling fruits chronicles
On January 22, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that "fruits falling to the ground in northern orchards" are causing financial damage "estimated at 500 million shekels (more than 131 million dollars)," adding to what it disclosed a few days ago regarding the total financial loss in the North amounting to approximately $1.6 billion.
According to the newspaper, Israeli farmers in the North "complain about the difficulty of reaching the orchards along the border," explaining that their loss is twofold: the fruit that has not been harvested now, and the damage to the next season, revealing it is getting worse "while no one from the Property Tax Department has spoken to them until now regarding a compensation plan."
The significant decline in sales and revenues witnessed by shops on the northern border since the outbreak of the war seems clear, as the percentage of decline in sales is more than 70%, according to the correspondent of the Israeli Makan channel.
