A recent United Nations assessment has laid bare the devastating toll of the genocidal war on Gaza’s agricultural heartland, revealing that nearly nine out of ten farmlands have been damaged or destroyed. The joint analysis by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Satellite Centre paints a grim picture of scorched fields, ruined wells, and shattered infrastructure, a deliberate dismantling of a community’s means to survive.

The report highlights that 87 percent of Gaza’s agricultural areas have suffered severe damage, leaving thousands of farmers without land to cultivate and families without food security. Once the backbone of Gaza’s local economy, agriculture has now become a symbol of endurance amid desolation. Even as a fragile ceasefire allows limited access to certain regions, most lands remain barren, contaminated, or inaccessible, underscoring the magnitude of the devastation.

Only a small portion, around 600 hectares, remains fit for cultivation, offering a faint glimmer of recovery. Yet, with most irrigation wells destroyed and critical infrastructure in ruins, restoring Gaza’s food system will take years. The FAO has appealed for international assistance to rebuild what is left, but with funding scarce and the blockade still strangling the enclave, the future of Gaza’s farmlands, and those who depend on them, hangs by a thread.