Earth Day Under Siege and the Fight to Keep Gaza Growing

This Earth Day, my thoughts are with Gaza: its land, its farmers, and the small signs of life that still push up from the soil.

Gaza has long struggled under siege and occupation, but what we’re seeing now is the worst it has ever been. The agricultural sector is almost totally destroyed. Fields are inaccessible. Greenhouses are gone. Roads to farmland are destroyed. Olive groves have been flattened. Bulldozers have dug up farmland in search of tunnels. Access to rainwater and groundwater is out of reach, since there’s no electricity or gas to run the pumps to extract it.

To be honest, it’s heartbreaking. It’s a total disaster. To work, farmers need land, water and seeds – and all three are gone.

In northern and far southern Gaza, where agriculture once flourished, most farmland is now either destroyed or inaccessible. In Rafah, Anera had installed a solar-powered desalination unit serving 11 local farms. The unit was destroyed, along with the entire agricultural zone surrounding it. In Beit Lahia, an innovative greenhouse that produced grafted vegetable seedlings – critical for resisting soil diseases and coping with Gaza’s saline water – once supplied Anera-supported farmers and thousands more. It was bulldozed when the area was evacuated during the first week of the war, cutting off access to these vital seedlings. 

At the end of February, Anera received approval to ship seeds and other agricultural supplies into Gaza, but the territory has been completely sealed off since early March, preventing the entry of these much-needed resources. 

Each leaf, each tomato, every piece of fruit means everything in Gaza. In the West Bank, where I live, I can buy two boxes (66 lbs.) of tomatoes for the price of a single tomato in Gaza. We actually have a surplus here in the West Bank, because we can’t export our goods. In  recent months, Anera purchased West Bank produce to send to Gaza, but now we – and all other organizations – can’t get anything in because of the closed crossings, and despite the fact that people are starving.

The full environmental toll of this war is still unknown. What kinds of bombs were used? What chemicals have seeped into the soil? These are urgent questions we can only answer through proper testing. Even when farmers are able to cultivate their land again, we won’t know if the food grown will be safe to eat – and we may not know for years. Rehabilitating soil contaminated by chemical pollutants is a long and difficult process, with no quick fixes.

Of course, climate change is here, compounding the devastation. This last rainy season was the driest I’ve ever seen, and our summer was brutal. When rain finally came to Gaza, it flooded tents and soaked mattresses. Anera had many climate resilience projects in the pipeline. Then the war started, and we were forced into emergency survival mode. 

Still, agriculture is not a luxury – it’s a necessity. Gaza cannot depend on imports, not now and not in the future. Locally grown food will always be more sustainable and secure. That’s why we’re exploring alternatives to traditional farming methods, like wicking beds that require minimal imported soil and very little water – a creative, resource-efficient solution to the growing problem of soil contamination. We’re also looking to expand solar-powered desalination systems for irrigation and restore honey bee populations, which are vital for pollination and biodiversity.

This Earth Day, I want people around the world to think about where your food comes from—and who grows it. Farmers are the backbone of every society. They feed us. They deserve our support and our respect. They are the guardians of the land.

We are using up Earth’s resources at an unsustainable rate. The pressure is global. And the burden is felt most by vulnerable communities like those in Gaza, where each piece of fruit is life-saving and every farmer who continues to plant and harvest in the face of war is a hero.

In a small, densely populated place like Gaza, people can still grow much of the food they depend on, if they have the right tools and support. But to make any of this happen, Gaza first needs peace, then global and local support. Gaza needs funding, equipment, materials and expertise. The territory also badly needs freedom of movement and access.

If I were planning for the next 25 years of Gaza’s rebuilding, I’d start from the rooftops and along the roads. Every building would have a green roof. We’d plant native trees along the roads and in parks, use every drop of gray water and treated wastewater for irrigation, and integrate climate-smart farming practices into every layer of the rebuilding plan.

We don’t know what the future holds, or when this war will end, but as Palestinians, we know one thing for certain: we will never leave our land. And so, we must keep planning and planting for the future.

This Earth Day, let’s remember: when we support farmers, we support Earth. We support humanity.