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UN: More than Half of Cropland in Hungry Gaza is Damaged

A crop duster plane flies over a field, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, Israel, February 19, 2024.REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A crop duster plane flies over a field, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, Israel, February 19, 2024.REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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UN: More than Half of Cropland in Hungry Gaza is Damaged

A crop duster plane flies over a field, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, Israel, February 19, 2024.REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A crop duster plane flies over a field, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, Israel, February 19, 2024.REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

More than half of Gaza's agricultural land, crucial for feeding the war-ravaged territory's hungry population, has been degraded by conflict, satellite images analysed by the United Nations show.

The data reveals a rise in the destruction of orchards, field crops and vegetables in the Palestinian enclave, where hunger is widespread after eight months of Israeli bombardment.

The World Health Organisation warned on Wednesday that many people in Gaza were facing "catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions".

Using satellite imagery taken between May 2017 and 2024, United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that 57% of Gaza's permanent crop fields and arable lands essential for food security had shown a significant decline in density and health, Reuters reported.

"In May 2024, crop health and density across the Gaza Strip showed a marked decline compared to the average of the previous seven seasons," UNOSAT said on Thursday.

"This deterioration is attributed to conflict-related activities, including razing, heavy vehicle movement, bombing, and shelling."

The decline, UNOSAT said, marked a 30% increase in damaged agricultural land since it published its last analysis in April.

Israel's ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7.

The offensive has killed more than 37,000 people in Gaza, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, and has caused mass destruction and cut off routes for aid.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday there were more than 8,000 children under five years old in Gaza who had been treated for acute malnutrition.

As well as damage to crop fields and orchards, greenhouses across the Gaza Strip had also sustained significant damage, UNOSAT said.

The Gaza Strip has an estimated 151 square kilometres of agricultural land, which makes up about 41% of the coastal enclave's territory, according to data from UNOSAT.

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Moving Heaven, Earth to Make Bread in Gaza

Displaced Palestinian girls bake bread at the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip - AFP
Displaced Palestinian girls bake bread at the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip - AFP
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Moving Heaven, Earth to Make Bread in Gaza

Displaced Palestinian girls bake bread at the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip - AFP
Displaced Palestinian girls bake bread at the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip - AFP

In Gaza, where hunger gnaws and hope runs thin, flour and bread are so scarce that they are carefully divided by families clinging to survival.

"Because the crossing points are closed, there's no more gas and no flour, and no firewood coming in," said Umm Mohammed Issa, a volunteer helping to make bread with the few resources still available.

Israel resumed military operations in the Palestinian territory in mid-March, shattering weeks of relative calm brought by a fragile ceasefire.

The United Nations has warned of a growing humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the besieged territory, where Israel's blockade on aid since March 2 has cut off food, fuel and other essentials to Gaza's 2.4 million people, AFP reported.
Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow aid in, accusing Hamas of diverting the supplies, a claim the Palestinian militant group denies.

Once again, residents have had to resort to increasingly desperate measures to feed themselves.

To cook a thin flatbread called "saj", named after the convex hotplate on which it is made, Issa said the volunteers have resorted to burning pieces of cardboard.

"There's going to be famine," the Palestinian woman said, a warning international aid groups have previously issued over the course of 18 month of war.

"We'll be in the situation where we can no longer feed our children."

- 'Bread is precious' -

Until the end of March, Gazans gathered each morning outside the few bakeries still operating, in the hope of getting some bread.

But one by one, the ovens cooled as ingredients -- flour, water, salt and yeast -- ran out.

Larger industrial bakeries central to operations run by the UN's World Food Programme also closed for lack of flour and fuel to power their generators.

On Wednesday, World Central Kitchen (WCK) sounded the alarm about a humanitarian crisis that is "grows more dire each day."

The organization's bakery is the only one still operating in Gaza, producing 87,000 loaves of bread per day.

"Bread is precious, often substituting for meals where cooking has stopped," it said.

"I built a clay oven to bake bread to sell," said Baqer Deeb, a 35-year-old father from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

He has been displaced by the fighting, like almost the entire population of the territory, and is now in Gaza City.

"But now there's a severe shortage of flour," he said, "and that is making the bread crisis even worse."

There is no longer much food to be found for sale at makeshift roadside stalls, and prices are climbing, making many products unaffordable for most people.

- 'Mould and worms' -

Fidaa Abu Ummayra thought she had found a real bargain when she bought a large sack of flour for the equivalent of 90 euros at Al-Shati refugee camp in the north of the territory.

"If only I hadn't bought it," the 55-year-old said. "It was full of mould and worms. The bread was disgusting."

Before the war, a typical 25-kilo sack like the one she bought would have gone for less than 10 euros.

"We are literally dying of hunger," said Tasnim Abu Matar in Gaza City.

"We count and calculate everything our children eat, and divide up the bread to make it last for days," the 50-year-old added.

"We can't take it any more."

People rummage through debris searching for something to eat as others walk for kilometres (miles) to aid distribution points hoping to find food for their families.

Germany, France, and Britain on Wednesday called on Israel to stop blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza, warning of "an acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death".

According to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, displaced people at more than 250 shelters in Gaza had no or little access to enough food last month.

True to their reputation for resilience after multiple wars, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have devised countless ways to cope with growing hardship.

But in interviews with AFP, many said these improvised solutions often make them feel as though they've been thrust back centuries.