After ravaging crops in the Egyptian Nile valley, swarms of locusts have crossed the border into Israeli territory in the south near Kmehin and the Gaza strip.

Thousands of the insects crawled in from the Sinai desert into Israel and Gaza, ready to eat every plant on their way.The Israeli Agriculture Ministry is on high alert and is taking steps to combat the locust attack by spraying pesticide.

[Spray Plane Pilot]:
"We are going to destroy them, destroy them. We did it nine years ago. And this is the second time."

All too often, the Israeli and Palestinian conflict dominate the headlines. But here, both are united fighting against a common threat.

[Khalif Alfajir, Gaza Farmer]:
"The locust is here in great numbers, in the hundreds of thousands, it is in the vegetables, on the parsley and the spinach".

But not everyone is unhappy. In Israel some people regard the locust as a tasty snack.

[Meir Rane, Israeli Resident]:
"We are collecting them in order to eat them, it's Kosher according to the Bible. I heard lots of stories from Yemen that my father, who is here collecting as well, told me. They used to eat them. Collect them, put them in the oven, it comes out like a chip, you can put barbecue sauce on them."

In a few weeks Israeli families will be observing the Passover holiday and remembering the Jewish Exodus from slavery in Egypt.

And parents will be telling their children that 4,000 years ago, one of the ten plagues to have hit the Pharaoh and Egypt was a swarm of locusts.

NTD, Israel

Reporter: Marlene-Aviva Grunpeter

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