Protect people living in the Access Restricted Areas and surroundings from
protracted protection threats, enhance their resilience and livelihoods and advocate
for their rights to adequate standard of living June 2017 marked the 50 years of Israeli occupation and ten years of blockade in the Gaza strip. The situation of Gazans continues to deteriorate day after day not only due to the Israeli occupation and the comprehensive blockade on Gaza Strip, but also to the Palestinian political division between the two main factions. This deterioration severely worsened at the beginning of 2017 when both Israelis and Palestinians duty bearers started punitive measures against the de-facto government. Palestinian authorities started applying pay-cuts on more than 50,000 civil servants in health and education sectors. Israeli authorities started reducing the electricity supply to the Gaza strip putting the de-facto authorities in dire situation and leading them to increase taxes on Gazans to compensate their financial deficit. The severe shortages in electricity supply – 2 to 3 hours of electricity every 24-30 hours today - impact all Gazans aspects of life: health, water and sanitation, agriculture, education, etc. The food security has been severely affected with more than 20,000 dunums cultivated with vegetables and fruit trees in Gaza Strip at risk of drought according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Small-scale farmers are facing tremendous challenges to irrigate their farmlands and loss of part or all of the production cycle is inevitable. They contracted debts to irrigate their farmlands when it was possible, while others are losing their crops due to severe economic situation. 
In this protracted crisis context, innovative solutions such as the use of renewable energy could protect affected farmers from completely losing their production cycle and/or prepare them to cope with future shocks of same nature. 
Therefore, PUI plans to support small-scale farmers at household level through the provision of solar energy to operate small agricultural wells and pumping water from water ponds. PUI also plans to assist affected farmers who were affected by draught and lost part or all their crops through conditional cash assistance and provision of agricultural inputs to avoid missing the next planting season in October. 

In addition, PUI will provide farmers’ wives with awareness sessions on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) in close collaboration with UNMAS. 
Periodic escalations of hostilities since 2006 have resulted in the contamination of Gaza with a high number of ERW. According to UNMAS, The 2014 escalation resulted in an approximated 7,000 items of ERW. The remaining amount to be cleared is estimated to be approximately 1,000-1,500 with 5,521 items of ERW reported recovered. ERW impacts livelihoods primarily in agriculture field.  Farming land, particularly along the eastern edge of the Gaza strip which witnessed some of the heaviest fighting during all previous conflicts, is impacted by ERW buried below the surface. Farmers working in battle damaged areas are at higher risk for injury.  
According to PUI impact survey report from July 2017, all interviewed farmers indicated the importance and relevance of awareness raising sessions on the risks of ERW in avoiding incidents. The vast majority of farmers confirmed that the sessions contributed to improving their knowledge on the subject through changing wrong concepts and/or acquiring new information.
ERW continue to cause victims, some referred to PUI for assistance like for instance in August 2016. If providing risk education sessions in accident locations is necessary, targeting more people is a crucial preventive way to save lives.

Awareness sessions on child protection should also take place for PUI’s beneficiaries. 
The different activities were discussed with FSS coordinator in order to provide the most effective and efficient intervention. 
PUI will implement this action in close collaboration with the Arab Center for Agricultural Development (ACAD) and local Community Based-Organizations (CBOs) partners in the targeted areas of intervention.