'It's hard for me to capture scenes knowing a massacre took place here'

In recent months, almost every farmer living close to the Gaza border who returned to work has encountered Marina Forman-Levy. The talented 46-year-old agricultural photographer, garnering thousands of followers on Instagram, has been documenting the resurgence of local agriculture after the October 7 attack and throughout the war. "When I stand in the fields of the Gaza border region and take pictures, I always ask myself the same question: how did the government abandon such a beautiful place?" she says.

10 View gallery Marina Forman-Levy Marina, who lives in Nahalal in the Jezreel Valley, is married and a mother of three children. "My eldest daughter serves in the IDF at the Gaza District Coordination and Liaison base, where Hamas terrorists infiltrated, kidnapped and killed soldiers," she recounts. "By chance, she came home the night before.

I was gifted with my daughter." When the Gaza war began, Forman-Levy volunteered in agriculture in Gaza border towns. "I came to help the farmers with harvesting and other tasks, and brought my camera," she recalls.

"I started taking pictures — and haven't stopped. There's no field on the Gaza border I haven't photographed. So many pictures.

That's how I got to know more and more farmers. “Even after I finished volunteering, I kept coming to take photos near the border. I took pictures of the agricultural machinery in Kibbutz Nahal Oz or Kfar Aza, in the fields near the border, and also in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

It's sometimes hard for m.