JERUSALEM, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Thursday handed back to Jordan a land parcel it had leased from the kingdom for more than two decades, the army said.
Located in the Negev Desert's Arava region, south of the Dead Sea, the fertile agricultural enclave is known as Tzofar in Hebrew and al-Ghamr in Arabic.
A military spokesperson said the area was announced a closed military zone before the border between the two countries was closed at 3 p.m. local time (1200 GMT).
Israel's foreign ministry said the move was coordinated with Jordan after "the sixth month extension period the Jordanians granted" has ended.
The Israeli government has supplied alternative lands to the farmers from the region. However, according to Erez Gibori, a farmer from al-Ghamr, the lands are not as fertile as those in the enclave.
"We received 22 million shekels (6.29 million U.S. dollars) to cultivate the lands, but the total expenditure comes to 45 million shekels," he told Army Radio.
If the government will not help the farmers "no one will likely be able to grow something there," Gibori added.
Al-Ghamr was supposed to be returned to Jordan last November, together with Baqoura, or Naharayim in Hebrew, a land in the Jordan Valley where the Jordan and Yarmuk rivers meet.
But the lease on al-Ghamr was extended by six months to coincide with the end of the agricultural season in the region.
In the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, the latter has agreed to let Israel lease both areas for 25 years before Israel should return them back. Enditem
