Israel’s offensive is destroying Gaza’s ability to grow its own food

Israel’s Invasion of Gaza Severely Impacts Food and Water Production

More than six months into Israel’s invasion of Gaza, the Strip’s ability to produce food and clean water has been severely hampered.

• Israeli airstrikes and bulldozers have razed farms and orchards.
• Crops abandoned by farmers seeking safety in southern Gaza have withered, and cattle have been left to die.

The Story of Agriculture in Gaza

Ashraf Omar Alakhras had a family farm in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza near the border with Israel. In late January, he said, Israeli bulldozers plowed it under, along with his greenhouses and solar energy projects, to clear space for a militarized buffer zone.

“We worked on our large farm that we inherited from our ancestors,” he told The Washington Post, sharing photos and videos of a life that is now gone. “We grew oranges, lemons, potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes and cucumbers.”

The fate of Alakhras’s farm has become the story of agriculture in Gaza.

A Post analysis of agricultural data, satellite imagery and interviews with experts and Palestinians in the Strip reveals how an already vulnerable agricultural system is on the brink of collapse.

Asked for comment on the level of destruction in Gaza’s agricultural sector, the Israel Defense Forces said, “Hamas and other terror organizations unlawfully embed their military assets in densely populated civilian areas.” The IDF added that its actions are “based on military necessity and in accordance [with] international law.”

Gaza’s Limited Ability to Feed Its People

Even before the war, most of Gaza’s fruits and vegetables were imported into the enclave. Gaza’s ability to feed its people has been limited for nearly two decades because of a punishing blockade by Israel and Egypt, which was put in place after Hamas seized power in 2007. Israel controlled all but one border crossing; limited electricity and water supplies; barred access to deeper fishing waters offshore; and restricted the import and export of goods.

As a result, agriculture and fishing were often small-scale but essential undertakings. Gazans farmed and fished where they could, building greenhouses on rooftops, harvesting rainwater for irrigation and jury-rigging boats to run on cooking oil or car engines. Small olive groves and fruit trees dotted the landscape.

Local produce — tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, herbs, and red and green chile peppers — went to markets or directly to kitchen tables. Households relied on local production for more than 40 percent of their fruits and vegetables as of 2022, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Agriculture accounted for nearly half of Gaza’s total land area before the war, according to UNOSAT, the United Nations’ satellite center; 45 percent of that agricultural land has now been damaged.

The Impact on Food Insecurity and Water Supply

Under international humanitarian law, civilians caught in conflict cannot be denied access to food or water by warring parties, legal experts said. This also extends to targeting food infrastructure.

“With very narrow exceptions, it’s prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless those objects,” said Tom Dannenbaum, an associate professor of international law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Dannenbaum added that when civilians face starvation, water and food infrastructure — such as irrigation works and agricultural fields — they don’t lose their protected status just because combatants conduct operations from within a civilian population.

Even before the war, most of Gaza’s fruits and vegetables were imported into the enclave. Gaza’s ability to feed its people has been limited for nearly two decades because of a punishing blockade by Israel and Egypt, which was put in place after Hamas seized power in 2007. Israel controlled all but one border crossing; limited electricity and water supplies; barred access to deeper fishing waters offshore; and restricted the import and export of goods.

Gazans — historically dependent on assistance from UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees — now rely even more on the limited aid allowed in. Many forage for edible plants and some, according to the United Nations, have been reduced to eating grass and animal feed. In northern Gaza, residents told The Post they had been surviving on khoubiza, a leafy green that grows naturally in the winter. But when spring came, this source of sustenance disappeared.

Maximo Torero, chief economist at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said the level of food insecurity is at a critical stage.

“This is completely man-made,” he said. “And there are thousands of lives, and potentially hundreds of thousands of lives, that are now at risk.”

Compounding the war’s impact, parts of Gaza have lost much of their water supply infrastructure. According to Torero, 50 percent is unusable in northern Gaza, 54 percent in central Gaza, 50 percent in Khan Younis and 33 percent in Rafah. In addition, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, only two of the three desalination plants are partially functional, and many Gazans are surviving on brackish water.

Undoing all this damage could take decades.

Georgina McAllister, an assistant professor at Coventry University in England, noted the unprecedented road ahead to rebuilding in Gaza.

“In 30 years of working as a specialist in food and farming systems under conflict, I have never dealt with this level of devastation and precarity.”

Methodology

To assess the extent of damage to Gaza’s food infrastructure, The Post reviewed photo and video evidence, analyzed satellite imagery and spoke with experts.

He Yin, a satellite imagery analyst and assistant professor

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. No Poverty

• Target 1.2: By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
• Indicator 1.2.1: Proportion of population living below the national poverty line, by sex and age.

2. Zero Hunger

• Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.
• Indicator 2.1.2: Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).

6. Clean Water and Sanitation

• Target 6.4: By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity.
• Indicator 6.4.2: Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources.

15. Life on Land

• Target 15.3: By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.
• Indicator 15.3.1: Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Fuente: washingtonpost.com

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