Tank tracks can still be seen in his field in the coastal Al-Mawasi region of southern Gaza. Nedal Abu Jazar lamented the damage the war has caused to his trees and fields. “Look at the destruction,” the 39-year-old farmer told AFP, holding an uprooted tomato plant. He pointed to the metal framework of his greenhouse and the white plastic sheeting scattered all over the plot, which is in an area designated as a humanitarian zone by the Israeli army. “People were sitting peacefully on their farmland… and suddenly tanks came and shot at us, and then there were (air) strikes.” Abu Jazar said the Israeli operation in late June destroyed about 40 dunams (10 acres) of land and killed five workers. His case was not an isolated one. Across Gaza, 57 percent of agricultural land has been damaged since the war began, according to a joint assessment by the United Nations’ agriculture and satellite imaging agencies FAO and UNOSAT released in June. The damage threatens Gaza’s food sovereignty, Matieu Henry of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization told AFP, as 30 percent of the Palestinian territory’s food consumption comes from agricultural land. “If almost 60 percent of agricultural land has been damaged, this can have a significant impact on food security and food supplies.” The Gaza Strip exported $44.6 million worth of produce in 2022, mostly to the West Bank and Israel, with strawberries and tomatoes accounting for 60 percent of the total, according to FAO data. That number dropped to zero after the October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled territory. The damage assessment of agricultural land comes after the United Nations hunger monitoring system estimated in June that 96 percent of Gaza was suffering from acute food shortages. When contacted by AFP, the Israeli army said it “does not intentionally damage agricultural land.” In a statement, it said Hamas “often operates from orchards, fields and agricultural land.” – No work, no income – The impact is worse in the north of the Palestinian territory, where 68 percent of agricultural land is damaged, although the southern area, which includes parts of Al-Mawasi, has seen the sharpest increase in damage in recent months due to military operations. UNOSAT’s Lars Bromley told AFP the damage was generally “due to the impact of activities such as heavy vehicle traffic, bombing, artillery shelling and other conflict-related dynamics, such as burning areas”. Near the southern city of Rafah, 34-year-old farmer Ibrahim Dheir feels helpless after 20 dunams (five acres) of land he used to rent were destroyed, taking all his farming equipment with it. “As soon as the Israeli bulldozers and tanks entered the area, they started bulldozing farmland with various trees, including fruit, citrus, guavas, as well as crops such as spinach, molokhia (jute mallow), eggplant, pumpkins, gourds and sunflower seedlings,” he said, before listing other damages as a testament to the area’s former agricultural wealth. Dheir, whose family exported their produce to the West Bank and Israel, now feels destitute. “We used to depend on agriculture for our livelihood day in day out, but now there is no work or income.” – Permanent damage – Farmer Abu Mahmoud Za’arab is also left “without a source of income.” The 60-year-old owns 15 dunams (3.7 acres) of land that used to grow crops and fruit trees. “The Israeli army went through the land and destroyed all the trees and crops,” he told AFP. “Their bulldozers and artillery bombers have flattened the land and turned it into barren pits. “The damage done to farmland in Gaza will go far beyond tank tracks and explosions,” said UNOSAT’s Bromley. “With modern weapons, a certain percentage will always fail. Tank shells don’t explode, artillery shells don’t explode… so clearing up these unexploded ordnance is a huge task,” he said. “You have to examine every inch of the land before you can let the farmers back on it.” Despite the risks, Dheir wants to return to farming. “We want the war to end and everything to go back to the way it was so we can go back to farming and cultivating our land.”