Among the displacement tents of Al-Saraya in Gaza City, Abu Fares Abu Jabal is holding on to a way of life that has sustained his family for generations. Before the war, the farmer from Northern Gaza grew potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, parsley, mangoes, oranges and other crops for the territory’s once-thriving horticultural sector.
This came to an end, though, with the war. Arrested by Israeli forces, he was held first in Ofer Prison, a military facility in the West Bank, and then Sde Teiman, a detention centre in the Negev desert near the border with Gaza.
It was a difficult experience he prefers to forget, but he says that prison taught him how to become stronger and endure difficult circumstances.
Freed from prison, but with no home to return to
After his release, he found himself living a completely different life. No longer able to farm – most land is now unusable because of the war – he found his family living in a tent in Al-Saraya, a district of Gaza City.
He did not wait for life to return to normal before planting again. As soon as he found a small piece of land beside his tent, he began cultivating it. Here he has created a garden of his own. It is very different from the farm he once had, but he grows tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, parsley, corn, mint, basil, and a few flowers.
His children help him plant, water and care for the crops, spending time beside their father among the plants. For them, the garden is not only a place where vegetables grow; it has become a small but important part of their daily lives.
A fragile garden feeds a family’s hope
Abu Fares spends time caring for his plants, watching them grow and protecting them. He lives with nine members of his family, and the garden has become something they share together. His relationship with the plants is so strong that he jokes that they are more important to him than his own children. He says:
“I take care of the plants better than I take care of my son. Sometimes I might even have to punish him for being careless with them.”
Behind the humour is a deep attachment to farming. The plants are not simply vegetation growing beside his tent. They connect him to the life he knew before the war, to his family, and to the land.
Among the ruins, memories take root
He also makes pickles from what he grows, finding ways to preserve and make use of what his small garden produces. And of course the plot makes an important contribution to his family’s nutrition, when food, and especially fresh produce, is scarce.
For Abu Fares, farming is a way of staying connected to the person he was before displacement. It is also a reminder of what his grandparents taught him and of a profession that has been passed down through his family from one generation to the next.
He says that if he were a plant, he would choose to be a cactus, because the people of Gaza have learned patience and resilience. A cactus can survive difficult conditions, and Abu Fares sees something of that endurance in himself and in the people around him.
From a handful of seeds, hope refuses to die
In a place where displaced families have lost so much, Abu Fares has created something small but deeply meaningful.
His garden cannot replace the farm and life he once had. But every tomato, pepper, zucchini, ear of corn, sprig of mint, basil leaf, parsley stem, and flower growing beside his tent carries a small part of that life forward.
He lost his home and his land, but he did not lose his relationship with the soil.
And now, his children are learning from him too — helping him plant, care for the garden, and keep alive a tradition that has been passed down through the generations.
In the heart of displacement, Abu Fares continues to plant, and in doing so, he is not only growing vegetables, he is holding on to a part of himself.
Farah Hassan writes professionally as Farah Rebhy, and she’s on Instagram. If you enjoyed this post, please contribute to her fundraiser – paid work is scarce in Gaza’s shattered economy and she will be very grateful!
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