Source: Planet Labs PBC | (LEFT) Before: November 2023; (RIGHT) After: May 2024

Gaza City, July 7 (RHC)-- Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine continues to impede Gaza’s ability to feed itself by destroying farmland and the livlihoods of farmers.

60-year-old farmer Abu Mahmoud Za’arab says he has “no source of income” after Israeli soldiers destroyed his 15 dunams (1.5 hectares or 3.7 acres) of land, along with his crops and fruit trees.  “The Israeli army passed through the land, completely wiping out all trees and crops,” Za’arab told the AFP.

“They bulldozed and shelled the land, turning it into barren pits,” he added.

Another farmer, Nedal Abu Jazar, who is 39, told AFP that five farmworkers were killed and about 40 dunams (4 hectares or 10 acres) of land destroyed when Israeli forces attacked his farm with tanks and air strikes.

“People were sitting peacefully on their farmland … and suddenly, tanks arrived and fired at us, and then there were [air] strikes,” he said.

Nine months into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, once plentiful harvests have turned into widespread destruction and a severe humanitarian crisis.

A UN report says 96 percent of Gaza’s population is food insecure and one in five Palestinians, or about 495,000 people, is facing starvation.

More than half (60 percent) of Gaza’s farmland, crucial for feeding the war-ravaged territory’s hungry population, has been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks, according to Al Jazeera.