Every morning, Ibrahim Naji al-Dabba climbs to the roof of a damaged residential tower in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, where rows of beehives sit amid shattered concrete and war scars. For the 49-year-old father of seven, this rooftop is the only place he can continue the profession that sustained his family for decades.
From thriving business to total loss
Before the war, al-Dabba owned more than 400 beehives across eastern Gaza. His apiaries, equipment, storage facilities, and four-wheel-drive vehicle supported a thriving business. Now, almost everything he built has disappeared. He lost his home, over 400 beehives, honey-processing equipment, and nearly all his tools. He estimates financial losses at more than $350,000 (£263,000).
“The hardest moment was realising that everything I had spent years building was gone,” he says. “I lost not only my beehives but also my home, my equipment, and my only source of income.”
Returning to bees amid destruction
Al-Dabba, who also serves as president of the Gaza Beekeepers’ cooperative society, says beekeeping became a passion long before a profession. He specialised in producing honey, breeding queen bees, and developing strains adapted to Gaza’s climate. Before the war, the sector had grown despite the blockade.
Displaced repeatedly, like hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, he searched for other work but found none. He returned to beekeeping with savings, buying three beehives for over $3,000. Because moving between agricultural areas had become dangerous, he placed the hives on a damaged rooftop. “I wanted the bees to adapt to these harsh conditions, just as we have had to adapt,” he says.
Rebuilding hive by hive
With his sons, he gradually expanded those three colonies into 35 beehives. Honey production remains limited, but every successful harvest means more than income. “I don’t feel that I’m only taking care of bees,” al-Dabba says. “I’m trying to preserve a part of the life that I lost because of the war.”
Essential supplies—medicines, wax foundation, feed, equipment—have become scarce or prohibitively expensive. Rebuilding an apiary is financially impossible for many beekeepers, and high packaging costs make selling honey difficult. Yet al-Dabba believes beekeeping is essential for agriculture. “There is no sustainable agriculture without bees,” he says. “Supporting beekeepers means supporting food production and the livelihoods of thousands of families.”
Bees as a symbol of resilience
Standing among the hives, al-Dabba says the bees remind him of the people of Gaza. “They continue working despite the hardship. They always find their way back to the hive.” For him, every surviving colony carries a message: “As long as there is even one beehive, and one beekeeper holding on to this profession, there is hope that life can begin again.”
