The sons of Ibrahim al-Dabba (unseen), head of the Beekeepers Cooperative in the Gaza Strip, tend to beehives with their father on the roof of a destroyed building in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, where the displaced family has taken refuge, on Aug. 5. AFP-Yonhap
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Perched on the edge of a rooftop high above Gaza City's bombed-out landscape, Ibrahim al-Dabba lovingly tends his community of bees, cultivating a rare source of hope among the ruins of the Israel-Hamas war.
Al-Dabba and his sons, donning protective netted hats and wielding metal bee smokers, gently inspect the neat rows of teeming hives.
As each frame of honeycomb is lifted out, hundreds of bees buzz lazily above the shattered urban neighborhood — an incongruous setting for an apiary, but one the veteran beekeeper had little option but to choose.
Al-Dabba, who heads the Beekeepers Cooperative in the Gaza Strip, said the war which erupted in October 2023 obliterated the Palestinian territory's beekeeping culture.
