Beehives cling to life above the ruins of Gaza, restoring hope to their owner

On the rooftop of a building in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, beekeeper Ibrahim Al-Daba is trying to preserve what remains of his hives, as the war has pushed the beekeeping sector into extraordinary circumstances, turning a residential rooftop into an unusual refuge for bees.

A report by the Associated Press quotes Al-Daba, who is the head of the beekeepers’ cooperative in the Gaza Strip, saying that before the war, the sector housed more than 40,000 hives and around 450 beekeepers, providing a source of income for more than 1,000 families, before the vast majority of it was destroyed.

Al-Daba lost around 400 hives located on agricultural land east of Gaza City, and transferred the remaining ones, approximately 35 hives, to the building’s rooftop.

Despite the difficult environment and the shortage of beekeeping supplies, Al-Daba says that the bees’ adaptation to their new location has restored some hope. As dire humanitarian conditions persist in Gaza, the few remaining hives represent for him an effort to preserve a profession and a livelihood, and a sign of the possibility of restoring life and stability in the future.