A new United Nations report has revealed catastrophic levels of destruction across the Gaza Strip, confirming that 87 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land has been damaged or destroyed during Israel’s months-long assault — pushing the besieged territory’s two million residents deeper into hunger and despair.

The joint analysis, issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT), paints a grim picture of deliberate devastation: vast tracts of farmland, greenhouses, irrigation wells, and essential agricultural infrastructure have been obliterated, erasing the very foundations of Gaza’s food system.

According to the UN’s satellite-based assessment, the destruction has been systematic and ongoing, with repeated bombardments reducing once-fertile farmland into barren, cratered wastelands. The report concludes that Gaza’s agricultural base — a vital lifeline for its people — has been “generally devastated.”

Despite the ceasefire, the report notes that only 37 percent of the damaged agricultural areas are currently accessible for potential rehabilitation and cultivation. Even within those areas, merely 600 hectares of farmland remain fully intact, offering a fragile opportunity for recovery — if resources and safety conditions allow.

The damage to Gaza’s irrigation wells, essential for sustaining crops and livestock, worsened from 83 percent in April to nearly 87 percent by late September, showing that Israel’s attacks continued to target Gaza’s life-support systems long after global appeals for restraint.

“The scale of destruction is staggering,” a UN humanitarian official stated. “This is not collateral damage — this is the deliberate dismantling of a society’s ability to feed itself.”

The FAO announced that it plans to join broader international efforts to rebuild Gaza’s shattered agricultural sector. However, its urgent 2025 appeal for $75 million in recovery aid has received barely 10 percent of the needed funds, leaving Gaza’s farmers without seeds, tools, or irrigation systems as planting seasons pass in ruin.

Humanitarian observers warn that this level of destruction has pushed Gaza to the edge of a famine, with the population already suffering from chronic malnutrition due to the blockade and the systematic targeting of food infrastructure throughout the war.

Analysts and rights groups say Israel’s campaign against Gaza’s farmlands fits a wider pattern of “starvation as a weapon of war”, an act prohibited under international law. By destroying fields, water sources, and storage facilities, the Israeli occupation forces have crippled Gaza’s self-sufficiency and deepened its humanitarian catastrophe.

As the world witnesses the slow death of Gaza’s agricultural heartland, the UN’s findings stand as a powerful indictment of Israel’s actions — and a reminder that true recovery cannot begin while the siege, occupation, and impunity continue. (ILKHA)