In Gaza, the Israeli regime has historically dictated everything that may enter the besieged strip. Using herbicidal warfare, Israel likewise determines how much food Palestinians in Gaza are allowed to produce by making large swaths of agricultural land unusable. Even more dire, the genocide unfolding since October 7th, 2023, shows that the Israeli regime has been actively using thirst and mass starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians. These actions can only be understood as an attack on the infrastructure of Palestinian life itself.… Until October 2023, Gaza was heavily dominated by urban sprawl, with few accessible rural areas available for agriculture. Gaza’s ability to produce 44% of its food in a mostly urban setting was remarkable, as urban environments rarely meet their food or water needs without a large rural countryside, even under normal circumstances. Without the ingenuity of Palestinians in Gaza, such as extracting gas and fertilizer from waste streams and utilizing their rooftops for growing crops, food insecurity within the territory would have been much worse.
Nonetheless, the limits of advocating for a food sovereignty approach while genocide and open warfare continue must be acknowledged. For instance, regenerative agricultural practices that aim to rehabilitate soils and create increased fertility are not able to take root, as Israeli forces routinely bombard the precious few agricultural zones in Gaza. By June 2024, the Israeli genocide had already destroyed 75% of agricultural zones in Gaza. While the destruction of trees and orchards also occurs in the West Bank, the scale of the genocide in Gaza and the wanton destruction has reached unparalleled levels.
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