Palestinian Farmers in Gaza Buffer Zone Remain Wary Wissam Nassar for The New York Times A Palestinian farmer, Ziad Abu Ettewi, at his pepper field near Gaza's eastern border with Israel. WADI GAZA, Gaza Strip - About 185 yards from the fence that separates Gaza from Israel, 300 rows of green chili pepper plants are sprouting on farmland that lay barren for years. Ziad Abu Ettewi, 42, said he planted the peppers, and some parsley, on his seven-acre plot after the November cease-fire agreement between Israel and Gaza, which promised farmers increased access to the area close to the fence that had long been off limits. But Mr. Ettewi is worried that the Israeli military might level the plants or shoot at the 10 workers he will need to harvest them next month. "I'm afraid of having them bulldozed since the first day I planted them," he said as he walked along his fields here in a village southeast of Gaza City. We do not know if the tanks will enter here today or tomorrow. Uncertainty is the biggest problem we face. Six months after the cease-fire ended eight days of fighting between Israel and Hamas, Mr. Ettewi and other Palestinian farmers, as well as human rights groups that work with them, say there is much confusion about what is permissible in the so-called buffer zone along Gaza's eastern border, and that plantings remain few. A ride on the outskirts of eastern Gaza last week showed mostly abandoned, uncultivated land stretching about 400 yards from the fence. The bumpy hills are dotted with destroyed wells and faint traces of long-ago incursions by Israeli tanks. Here and there, some farmers have planted rain-fed peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, parsley and potatoes. In February, Israel said that farmers could access land up to 110 yards from the fence, but a few weeks later drew the line at 328 yards and clarified that those wanting to work closer needed to coordinate with the authorities. From the Nov. 21 cease-fire to the end of May, four Palestinian civilians have been killed and 123 injured in the buffer zone by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, up from 3 deaths and 80 injuries in the same period the previous year. Maan, the Palestinian news agency, reported that another man was shot in the thigh while picking watermelons on Sunday. Israeli officials say the shootings have not targeted farmers but people who approached the fence and tried to touch or cut it, and that access to the buffer zone depends on a broader cessation of hostilities from Gaza toward Israel. I n March, Palestinians fired at a military jeep on the border, and an explosive charge went off in the area recently. Some farmers acknowledged that Palestinian youth frequently approach the fence on Fridays to protest. "The only reason in the first place that we have the security zone next to the fence was because of attacks," said Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman. But a report issued last month by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights described a "high-risk zone" extending almost a mile from the fence, and said residents did not understand the new policy. While many of the 35 farmers that the agency surveyed throughout the buffer area reported feeling safer on their land and being able to bring more workers for longer hours, they also said that they had not been able to use tractors close to the fence and had been frequently driven from the area by warning shots. The report cited an "increased level of uncertainty" and said the restrictions "undermine the livelihoods" of Palestinians in Gaza and put them at risk. "The restricted area's identification is loose," said Tareq al-Qatta, an agricultural project supervisor with the aid organization Oxfam International. Ali Abu Said, who has a field close to Mr. Ettewi's new peppers and is director of the Palestinian Farmers Society here, said he brought a bulldozer to level his land for planting last month, and within an hour an Israeli military jeep pulled up to the fence and fired at his vehicle. "The soldiers are moody - we do not know why they shoot," Mr. Said said. We want to know if this is a restricted area or not. We do not have the enthusiasm to plant our lands here again, because nothing is clear or taken for granted. Sari Bashi, director of Gisha, an Israeli group that advocates free movement of people and goods to and from Gaza, said the buffer zone was part of a series of "unfulfilled promises" from the November cease-fire brokered in Cairo. The fishing area off Gaza's coast was doubled to six nautical miles from three, but only near the end of the fishing season, Ms. Bashi said; exports were stymied when Israel closed the Kerem Shalom crossing after rocket fire from Gaza in March, and permits for travel to the West Bank remain rare. "There's been no real change in an overall policy of closure," Ms. Bashi said. There's a clear message from Israel's allies - Egypt, the United States and Turkey - that restrictions on movement into and out of Gaza need to be lifted, but that has not yet happened. Mr. Said of the farmers" society said that Israel began limiting access to the area in 2000, with the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, and that he was shot while working his land that year. The buffer zone was formally established when Hamas, the militant Islamic faction, took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Mr. Said said the next April, the Israeli military leveled all but two of hundreds of clementine and lemon trees he had planted on nearly five acres. "I will not risk again and plant trees," he said. Because the trees need years before you could pick their fruits, and who knows what the situation will be in the future. Fares Akram reported from Gaza, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem.