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• by Dr Mustafa Fetouri  MFetouri

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has not only levelled most of the built environment — satellite analyses in 2025 show damage to the vast majority of structures across the Strip. A UN’s last October assessment report puts damaged structures at roughly 81 per cent.

At the same time, Gaza’s agrifood system has been devastated: FAO and UN’s Satellite Centre’s geospatial assessments in 2025 found that the bulk of cropland, orchards and greenhouses were damaged. It also points out that over 75 per cent of fields once used to “grow crops, as well as olive tree orchards, have been damaged or destroyed.” While up to 70 per cent of greenhouses and large shares of permanent-crop areas are affected. About 82.8 per cent of agricultural wells and irrigation installations are out of service, further undermining production and accelerating salinisation. Furthermore, the UN Environment  Programme (UNEP) warns that a long term “risks for food production” due to the collapse of already heavily contaminated soils and freshwater, food production and public health.

By April 2025, according to relevant UN agencies, more than 80 per cent of cropland in the Gaza Strip had been damaged, leaving only 688 hectares — roughly 4.6 per cent — available for cultivation. The scale and depth of destruction extend far beyond ruined fields: they represent a near-total collapse of Gaza’s agrifood base, depriving hundreds of thousands of people of the ability to grow their own food and undermining the territory’s capacity for self‑sustenance or generate income, and plunging the territory into an agrarian and humanitarian abyss.

The damage to Gaza’s agriculture is deepened by severe soil and water contamination. The collapse of the sewage system and the destruction of piped water and sanitation systems and the build-up of roughly 61 million tonnes of rubble have made much of Gaza’s water supply unsafe and threatened its freshwater aquifer. Wastewater and debris — including remnants of munitions, heavy metals, and other pollutants — are now leaching into soils, surface water, and groundwater, raising the risk of long‑term toxic contamination. The destruction of vegetation, compaction soil by military vehicles and rubble, and loss of root systems have further degraded soil structure, reduced its water‑absorption capacity, and increased susceptibility to erosion, runoff, and salinisation.

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What remains of the land — even in areas where fields appear physically untouched — is often sterile or severely contaminated. For many farmers, cultivation is no longer viable. Water scarcity, coupled with chemically compromised soil, has rendered meaningful agriculture impossible across much of Gaza. The consequences go far beyond lost harvests: the territory’s agrifood base has suffered a near-permanent collapse. Land that once sustained entire communities has been transformed into zones of ecological devastation, deepening long-term food insecurity and chronic vulnerability.

Israel’s military campaign did not only destroy Gaza’s farms; it fundamentally altered the chemistry of the soil and water that agriculture depends on. The scale and intensity of bombardment — unprecedented even by Gaza’s tragic standards — released a cocktail of pollutants into the environment. Each strike left behind residues of explosive materials, heavy metals, fuel compounds, and pulverized building debris, all of which settled into agricultural land in layers thick enough to reshape soil composition. UNEP and other environmental assessments warn that such contaminants can persist for decades, binding to soil particles and making remediation extremely difficult and costly.

Since Israeli bombardment and shelling have struck virtually every part of the territory, the resulting contamination is likewise not confined to a few impact sites; it now spans Gaza’s entire agricultural belt. From Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, once-productive farmland lies blanketed with debris, unexploded ordnance, and chemically altered soil. Satellite imagery reviewed by multiple environmental teams shows vast areas where topsoil has been stripped, compacted, or burned. In districts where orchards once anchored rural livelihoods, little remains beyond scorched trunks and cratered fields.

This level of environmental destruction has effectively redrawn Gaza’s agricultural map. Areas that served as the main hubs of citrus, olive, and vegetable production have become unusable, either because the soil is too toxic or because the water sources that sustained them have collapsed. Irrigation wells have been destroyed or contaminated with salinity and nitrates. In some districts, experts warn that the land may not be recoverable without years of systematic soil rehabilitation, a process impossible under blockade and recurrent conflict.

Before the recent genocide, agriculture was a substantial part of Gaza’s economy and a pillar of local livelihoods. FAO estimated that agricultural activity — crops, herding, fishing — supported more than 560,000 people, either fully or partially, across the Strip. Agriculture accounted for roughly 10 percent of Gaza’s economy before 2023.

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According to a joint 2025 geospatial assessment by FAO and UNOSAT, of the total cropland in Gaza, more than 80 per cent — 12,537 hectares out of 15,053 — has been damaged, and 77.8 per cent of cropland is inaccessible. That leaves just 688 hectares (4.6 per cent) still available for cultivation as of April 2025. By some estimate this has now been reduced to roughly 232 hectares — remains both undamaged and accessible for cultivation.

What is unfolding in Gaza is not simply the destruction of an agricultural season, nor even the collapse of a single sector. It is the remaking of an entire ecological and economic landscape with the aim of larger genocide where the entire Strip is made uninhabitable. Clearing the rubble alone is a monumental task. Only after debris removal can soil remediation, well rehabilitation, and replanting begin, a process that is highly tedious, costly, and technically complex. Even if the shaky 10 October ceasefire endures — despite near-daily Israeli violations — Gaza inherits an environment so compromised that resuming meaningful food production will be measured not in months, but potentially in generations.

This is Israel’s most enduring imprint on Gaza: a slow, silent destruction that will persist long after the war ends if it ever does. By turning fertile land into toxic ground, it has engineered a crisis that strikes at the very heart of Palestinian survival — food, water, and the ability to live from one’s own soil. Any future humanitarian or political framework that ignores this environmental collapse will be negotiating with illusions. Gaza will require not only reconstruction, but comprehensive ecological rehabilitation on a scale rarely attempted in modern conflicts. Without it, the territory’s future will remain defined by scarcity, dependence, and a landscape unable to sustain the people still struggling to survive — a stark legacy that could last for generations.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.