PARIS (Dispatches) -- The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced on Tuesday that only three percent of Gaza’s cropland remains “accessible and undamaged” according to satellite image analysis.
The joint assessment with the UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) put accessible farmland at 4,091 hectares as of June 24, 2026 – roughly a quarter of Gaza’s total – but found that only 448 hectares had escaped damage. 
The remaining 3,643 accessible hectares are too badly damaged to plant and will need rehabilitation before any crop can be planted.
Overall, usable land has contracted by 153 hectares, or 25.5 percent, since October 2025, with Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis registering the sharpest losses.
FAO attributes the decline chiefly to farmers being locked out of their fields rather than to renewed destruction, pointing to the westward push of the so-called “Yellow Line” dividing what is supposed to be the ceasefire zone from the area under Israeli military control. 
Rafah is now almost entirely sealed off, with 97.2 percent of its cropland and 98.4 percent of its greenhouse area beyond reach to Palestinian farmers. The heaviest physical damage is concentrated in North Gaza and Gaza governorates. 
Greenhouse capacity has also collapsed, with only 224 hectares – 16.6 percent of the total – still accessible and intact, down from 226 hectares in October 2025, with Deir al-Balah again recording the steepest drop. 
Those farmers who can still reach their land face shortages of seeds, fertilizer, irrigation equipment, and fuel, while livestock keepers cannot reliably obtain feed, veterinary supplies, or animal health services.
What little does enter Gaza is often poor quality and priced out of reach.
“Without urgent action to restore safe access and provide farmers with the support they need, opportunities to restore local food production will continue to diminish,” said Rein Paulsen, director of FAO’s Office of Emergencies and Resilience.
On August 13, rights group Al Mezan reported that Israel has continued to systematically restrict the entry of humanitarian aid, with only a fraction of the 600 trucks a day mandated by the ceasefire agreement crossing into Gaza. 
Most carry commercial goods rather than relief supplies, while Israeli inspection and verification procedures stall shipments or turn them back outright.
Before Israel launched its genocide in Gaza in October 2023, agriculture made up roughly 10 percent of the strip’s economy and sustained the livelihoods of more than 560,000 people through farming, livestock, and fishing. 
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has recorded 1,266 Palestinians killed and 4,200 wounded since the so-called ceasefire took effect in Gaza on October 11, 2025.