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Gaza City, Gaza – Looking through old photos on his cellphone, farmer Abu Fares recalled how the Sheikh Ijlin area of Gaza City was once known for its grapes, fig trees and seasonal crops.
But the reality is that today is very different. Israel’s heavy-handed crackdown on the neighborhood and the greater Gaza Strip since October 2023 has turned what was once a barren wasteland, eliminating agriculture that supported thousands of families.
The destroyed site is the second disaster for Gaza’s displaced farmers: During Israel’s desert war, they lost their homes and their source of income as the Israeli army destroys the region’s fields. With Israel’s brutal siege preventing the entry of essential agricultural products, this destruction has become a major driver of the famine that threatens more than 2 million Palestinians.
But now, driven by rising food prices and desperation, many Palestinian refugees are turning the small plots of land around their tents into small farms. A displaced farmer explained how he relies on this method to grow tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and peppers. molochia he eats to feed his family, including orphans.
A place to be removed
Despite the severe shortage of water, seeds and fertilizers, farmers like Abu Mohammed continue to work in the land, not seeing agriculture as a source of income but as a means of rejecting and using their land.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture in Gaza, cultivated areas have fallen below 15 percent of their normal production capacity due to lack of inputs, destruction of irrigation sources and attacks on farmers working in their fields.
Access to the old farmland is now a death sentence for Palestinians. The Israeli army has designated large fields to be within the “Yellow Line“, or the area they are occupying, which makes the ground inaccessible due to military equipment.
This has meant that planting crops in small areas near tents is, for many farmers, the only option available.
Technology dependency
Experts warned that this destruction was not caused by war but by a deliberate method.
Fadel El-Zubi, a food security expert and regional policy advisor at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the destruction is not a waste of money but a problem. directly targeting all of Gaza’s food supply. He added that the systematic destruction of wells, irrigation systems, seed stores and perennial trees has been designed to dry up living things, push people to depend on food aid and make them dependent on food.
Before Israel’s recent war on Gaza, agriculture accounted for about 10 percent of Gaza’s economy and supported more than 560,000 people. Today, that system has collapsed. Beth Bechdol, deputy director of the FAO, has warned that the destruction of greenhouses and wells means that local agriculture will disappear, increasing the risk of famine in all regions.
Accident information
The scale of agricultural damage is unprecedented. Geospatial assessment from the FAO and the UN Satellite Center as of May 2025 revealed that less than 5 percent of Gaza’s crops remained for cultivation. By October, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, confirmed that many farms were destroyed or inaccessible.
The latest information from the Government Media Office in Gaza shows that Israel has destroyed more than 94 percent of the 178,000 acres (178sq km/69sq miles) of agricultural land. As a result, annual production dropped from 405,000 tons to 28,000 tons.
Across the region, 4 million fruit trees have been uprooted, including 1.6 million olive trees that will take years to replace. In addition, up to 87 percent of agricultural wells and 85 percent of greenhouses have been severely damaged or destroyed. Direct losses in agriculture and livestock are currently estimated at $2.8bn.
Rebuilding this escape route requires a lot of money. Last year, the FAO launched an urgent appeal for $75m to support farmers with crops, animal feed, irrigation equipment and raw materials. However, El-Zubi pointed out that less than 10 percent of this money has been subsidized and that it has decreased due to changes in global priorities as the global crisis evolves.
Despite the lack of funds and serious security risks, Gaza’s farmers continue to try to revive what is left of their land, clinging to the hope of restoring what was once the backbone of their lives.
