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Only 1.5% of Gaza cropland left for starving Palestinians due to Israel’s war, UN says
Nina Lakhani
Israel’s destruction of Gaza has left starving Palestinians with access to only 1.5% of cropland that is accessible and suitable for cultivation, according to new figures from the UN.
This is down from 4% in April, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), suggesting Israel has continued to target Palestinian farmland since initiating a complete blockade in early March, severely restricting aid from entering the Gaza Strip, where 2 million starved people are trapped.
Before the conflict, Gaza was a thriving agricultural hub, where farmers and ordinary Palestinians cultivated a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains for local consumption.
According to the FAO, agriculture accounted for around 10% of the Gaza Strip’s economy, and more than 560,000 people, or a quarter of the population, were at least partially supported by agriculture and fishing.
Israel has targeted food sources – orchards, greenhouses, farmland and fishers – since the beginning of its siege on Gaza in October 2023.
By 28 July 2025, Israel had damaged 86%, the equivalent of almost 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres), of farmland in the Gaza Strip – up from 81% in April, the FAO said. While just under 9% of cropland is still physically accessible, only 1.5% – the equivalent of 232 hectares – is both accessible and not damaged by the Israeli offensive.
“Gaza is now on the brink of a full-scale famine. People are starving not because food is unavailable, but because access is blocked, local agrifood systems have collapsed, and families can no longer sustain even the most basic livelihoods,” said FAO director-general Qu Dongyu. “We urgently need safe and sustained humanitarian access and immediate support to restore local food production and livelihoods – this is the only way to prevent further loss of life. The right to food is a basic human right.”
ShareEU assessment finds ‘significant obstructive factors undermine humanitarian operations in Gaza’
The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to be very severe, an EU official told Reuters after the EU’s foreign policy and humanitarian arms updated member countries late on Wednesday on the status of an agreement reached with Israel last month on boosting humanitarian access to Gaza.
The official said on Thursday that there were some positive developments regarding fuel delivery, the reopening of some routes, and an upward trend in the number of daily trucks entering the territory and the repair of some vital infrastructure.
Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid bound for the Gaza Strip wait at the Rafah border gate, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photograph: Mohamed Hossam/EPA
However, the official added that “significant obstructive factors continue to undermine humanitarian operations and aid delivery to Gaza, notably the lack of a safe operating environment to allow the distribution of aid at scale”.
Updated at 03.00 EDT
Israel’s security cabinet expected to meet tonight to sign off plans for expanded Gaza operation
Israel’s security cabinet is expected to meet on Thursday evening and sign off on plans for an expanded operation despite reported serious misgivings from senior military officers.
Yesterday, the Israeli military put parts of Gaza City and Khan Younis under new enforced displacement orders. The move comes amid fears that the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is preparing to order the full occupation of the Palestinian territory later this week.
Israeli online newspaper, the Times of Israel, citing various Hebrew media reports, added that the cabinet is expected to approve “a phased plan to conquer vast new areas of the Gaza Strip, potentially over five months, newly displacing around a million Palestinians”. Additionally, it would aim to destroy Hamas and pressure the group to release all remaining hostages, the publication reported.
Public broadcaster Kan also reported that mediators Egypt and Qatar were pressuring Israel, via the US, not to implement the plan, while also urging Hamas to resume negotiations.
In other developments:
The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to be very severe, an EU official told Reuters after the EU’s foreign policy and humanitarian arms updated member countries late on Wednesday on the status of an agreement reached with Israel last month on boosting humanitarian access to Gaza.
Israel’s destruction of Gaza has left starving Palestinians with access to only 1.5% of cropland that is accessible and suitable for cultivation, according to new figures from the UN. This is down from 4% in April, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), suggesting Israel has continued to target Palestinian farmland since initiating a complete blockade in early March.
On Wednesday, Gaza’s health ministry reported that five more people had died from starvation in the coastal strip, which has been plunged into a devastating hunger crisis owing to Israel’s complete block on aid entering earlier this year.
Jordan reported, on Wednesday, that an aid convoy of 30 trucks that had left for Gaza had been attacked by militant Jewish settlers on entering Israel. After the attack, the second in days, Jordan accused Israel of failing to act to prevent repeated assaults.
Naomi Klein and Angela Davis are among dozens of international scholars and writers who have signed a letter to the Guardian calling on the UK government to reverse the ban on Palestine Action. Signatories from major academic institutions around the world also say they are “especially concerned” about the ban’s possible impact on universities across Britain and beyond.
The UK prime minister Keir Starmer has been urged by Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, to call Donald Trump to encourage him to use his influence to block Israel’s plans for a “full occupation” of Gaza. In a statement, Davey said: “[Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu’s latest proposals for the occupation of all of Gaza are utterly horrifying.”