Gaza Herald – With essential farming equipment and seedlings altogether lacking in Gaza, Palestinian farmers are pressing to replant what remains after the brutal Israeli war, aimed at reviving their livelihoods.
Farmers from the northern part of Gaza City have returned to revive their livelihoods, planting in barren fields in northern Gaza—lands that were once full of crops before being devastated by the Israeli war.
“I used to have a four-and-a-half-hectare plot with fruit trees and vegetables. When the war came, everything green and dry was wiped out. We were displaced to the south, and after returning, we started again,” said Ahmed abu Hallima, a farmer.
Before the war, agriculture made up around 10% of Gaza’s economy. However, more than 80% of the farmland has been damaged, and 71% of the greenhouses are in ruins. Today, less than 5% of the remaining land is still suitable for cultivation, according to a recent FAO UNOSAT assessment.
“Farmers are returning to their fields, replanting shattered lands and rebuilding a lifeline that war nearly erased,” according to Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili, reporting from Gaza City.
“Each new seed is more than food. It’s work, dignity and a quiet act of recovery,” he said. “In Gaza, planting has never been just about food. For farmers like Ahmed, it is a declaration that regrowth is possible, even after everything has been uprooted,” he added.
