Israelis volunteer on farms to save agricultural supply after migrant workers flee war

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• Amna Nawaz:

  When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, and Israel declared war, most foreign farmworkers left the country, and Palestinian workers were barred from entering Israel.

  As journalist Jon Frankel discovered, many Israelis were called to reserve duty, leaving the farming industry facing financial losses and in desperate need of workers.

• Jon Frankel:

  The people of Israel say that they are in a fight for their lives and their land. While at war with Hamas, there is another front right under their feet, a battle to save their crops and a large part of their food supply.

  Some of those killed and kidnapped on October 7 were, like these field workers, from Thailand. They come in five-year cycles to work on farms across Israel. Fearing for their safety, many left.

• Liat Maimon Mahluf, Israeli Farm Owner:

  We used to have 20 workers, Thai, and that stayed here usually for five years, so they really know everything about the land, tractors, everything. And then, one day, we were left with two workers that decided to stay. All the rest when back home.

• Jon Frankel:

  Liat Maimon Mahluf helps run her family farm, 40 minutes north of Gaza and within rocket range, alongside her husband, Gidon (ph). The Thai workers they came to rely on dominated the agriculture landscape. Without them, the industry screeched to a halt.

  Can you quantify much money you may have lost?

• Liat Maimon Mahluf:

  I don't know exactly how much. I still don't know how much, but it's a lot. It's a lot, because it takes three months to grow cauliflower, and all that you put into these three months, from paying the workers, from water, from planting, from everything, it's gone, because you cannot pick it up. And it just sits there.

• Jon Frankel:

  On another farm nearby, it's no different.

  Morel Gaby (ph) says he lost nearly $275,000 in those first couple of weeks, but you cannot stop nature and growth. The vegetables don't see the pain, feel the wounds, or hear the sounds of war.

• Sharon Galon Beahr, Israeli Farm Volunteer:

  Can you hear the bombs?

• Jon Frankel:

  Though muffled, indeed, you can.

  But, despite that, Sharon Galon Beahr, a fashion designer, and her colleagues took a day off to work the fields. Desperate to harvest the crops, farmers couldn't be picky. They needed many hands, much less strong backs, and put the word out on social media.

  What made you come out here today and volunteer on the farm?

• Sharon Galon Beahr:

  When I'm touching, like, the ground, it feels like it was something that we were meant to do.

• Jon Frankel:

  The volunteers who are working this farm today have come from near and far. Some have come day after day. Others are newcomers. They have all served the required time in the Israeli military. And like the reservists from around the country who have been called to duty, these people also feel they have been called to serve their country in a different way.

• Sharon Galon Beahr:

  Everybody's doing something to feel more significant in this fight.

• Jon Frankel:

  Which is also why I came to Israel for a week. I wanted to lend my hands and make the land grow, today, planting cauliflower.

  In a national effort to get the farms back up and running, the military also is now deploying soldiers to farmland.

• Yoshiyahu Zemora, Soldier, Israeli Defense Forces:

  This is one of the proudest moments of my army service.

• Jon Frankel:

  For real?

• Yoshiyahu Zemora:

  Yes. Well, I'm a technician.So it's hard to see the fruits of your labor when you're a technician. I rig antennas. But this farming now is needed more than ever.

• Jon Frankel:

  Like many, Avishay Pony hadn't had time off since the war began. This is how he spent his first free day.

• Avishay Pony, Israeli Farmer:

  It's something I can do. I don't know how to go to the high tech, for example, to help there. I don't know to go to another place to do what the other guys do. But here, it's something. It's simple, simple work that I can do. And I'm happy to do it.

  And I hope I can work. But it's go around, because, if I not work, we have no food in the supermarket.

• Jon Frankel:

  To the north, in the Jordan Valley on Moshav Yardena, the owners of this farm also lost most of their farmworkers. And so I found myself picking tomatoes, trying to keep up with the next generation.

• Roni Lev, Israeli Farm Volunteer:

  This place, this land is very important to me and to all of us, basically.

• Jon Frankel:

  Roni Lev and her friends have been volunteering four days a week.

• Roni Lev:

  I did other jobs as well. Like I did dates. Like, we picked dates and bananas. But I really like tomatoes. So…

  (laughter)

• Jon Frankel:

  Do you want to be a tomato farmer or farmer at all?

• Roni Lev:

  No, I don't think so.

• Lial Miara, Israeli Farm Volunteer:

  We can do it because we're young and we're strong and we have the time.

• Jon Frankel:

  Lial Miara is also part of Mechina, a gap year program before these students join the military.

• Lial Miara:

  It's important, it's fun. You can see we're picking tomatoes, we're laughing, we're dancing.

• Gal Berkovich, Israeli Farm Volunteer:

  We work with music. We dance. We laugh together.

• Jon Frankel:

  Gal Berkovich is 19 years old.

• Gal Berkovich:

  If we won't dance, then who will dance? I think it's kind of symbolic that people lost their lives dancing at the party and, like, here we are dancing for them. It's kind of part of the deal. I'm really all for the morale. If we lose our morale, then we lose our spirit. And so I believe I'm doing something good.

• Jon Frankel:

  Back on the cauliflower farms, the size and number of fields that need planting is daunting for such a small and inexperienced crew.

  But with each row, there is progress. You can see what is and what it will be.

  Is this what a soldier does?

• Yair Lehmann, Soldier, Israeli Defense Forces:

  Usually not.

• Jon Frankel:

  Yair Lehmann works logistics in the IDF.

  How does it feel to be volunteering here when you know that your brothers and sisters in arms are fighting a war right now?

• Yair Lehmann:

  Actually, my best friends are in the commando and in the tank units in (inaudible). It's a little bit disappointing, to be honest, but once I see that we planted everything, I can see that I am helping the future.

  While they are helping the present, we are taking care of the future of the country to make sure our country grows.

• Jon Frankel:

  And what is growing is being harvested on time. Helping cut losses and getting the food to market, the volunteers are making a difference. And the farmers are settling into a new routine.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jon Frankel from Moshav Hatsav in the southern part of Israel.