Key facts
- Gaza farmers are cultivating small land plots amidst severe shortages and ongoing threats.
- Many farmers have lost family members, including Saqer Abu Rabee's son and brother, to military actions.
- Significant portions of pre-war agricultural land are inaccessible or destroyed.
- Local food production is helping to lower prices and increase self-sufficiency in areas like Beit Lahiya.
- Farmers are improvising solutions for fertilizer and battling soil and water challenges.
Gaza's farmers are facing immense challenges in their struggle to produce food amidst ongoing conflict and severe resource shortages. With limited access to unspoiled land, water, fertilizer, and pesticide, and with much of their infrastructure destroyed, they are employing ingenuity to cultivate crops.
Saqer Abu Rabee, a farmer from Beit Lahiya, exemplifies this resilience. He is working a 1.4-hectare plot that was once an orchard, now rehabilitated through manual labor after being bulldozed. His family produces vast quantities of seedlings and sells aubergines, significantly lowering local food prices and contributing to the area's self-sufficiency. Abu Rabee believes Beit Lahiya is crucial to preventing famine in Gaza.
However, the risks are profound. Abu Rabee's son, Yousef, was killed by a drone-fired missile while working on his farm, and his brother, Bilal, was killed while retrieving supplies. Abu Rabee believes farmers are being targeted due to their role in sustaining communities. The Israel Defense Forces deny targeting civilians, stating they respond only to imminent threats.
Satellite data indicates that less than a quarter of Gaza's pre-war cropland remains accessible, with only about 3% undamaged. Much of the fertile land is now under Israeli military occupation, with the army expanding its control. Human rights group Forensic Architecture found that a significant portion of Gaza's flora is within Israeli-controlled areas or a dangerous buffer zone.
Despite these hardships, farmers like Abu Rabee are improvising solutions for fertilizer and battling soil infestations and a chronic lack of water, all while living under the constant threat of violence. The limited recovery of food security in Gaza is fragile and heavily dependent on the continuation of local food production and the rebuilding of farmers' livelihoods.