Food production in Gaza 'decimated' with 70% of farmland hit, UN finds

More than 90% of cattle have died and about 70% of land for crops in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war, new analysis of satellite imagery by the UN has found.

- Jason Burke Malak A Tantesh

More than half of sheep and goat herds have been wiped out, while more than three-quarters of the territory's famous orchards have been destroyed or damaged, the survey in September found.

Local food production in Gaza had been "decimated", Rein Paulsen, the director of the office of emergencies and resilience at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, said last week. "Satellite images indicate that heavy Vehicle tracks, razing, shelling and other conflict-related pressures have damaged large areas of farmland, infrastructure, wells and other productive infrastructure," Paulsen told the UN security council, adding that the destruction had substantially increased the risk of famine there.

Before the outbreak of war last year, farms covered about 40% of Gaza and produced enough vegetables, eggs, fresh milk, poultry and fish to meet about a third of local demand. Many families had their own olive or fruit trees.

Faraj Jarudat, who was forced to flee his farm in northern Gaza early in the conflict, said his three cows and 60 sheep had died, either killed by Israeli shelling or for lack of fodder.

"Some died of starvation, some were eaten by people who were hungry, some just disappeared. There is not a single one left," J arudat, who has been displaced multiple times like most people in Gaza, told the Guardian.