A screen-grab from the videos released by Human Rights Watch Dec. 4, 2023, detailing the destruction of agricultural land in northern Gaza. (Credit: Human Rights Watch via L'Orient Today)
Human Rights Watch released videos Monday of satellite imagery revealing the destruction of orchards, greenhouses, and farmland in northern Gaza, razed since Israeli's ground invasion began a little over a month ago. The damage compounds already existing concerns about food insecurity and lost livelihoods.
In north-eastern Gaza, "green agricultural land is now brown and desolate," HRW reports, describing how fields and orchards were first damaged by hostilities and then carved up by bulldozers creating routes for Israeli military vehicles moving through the battered territory.
The report shows images of land north of Beit Hanoun from various dates throughout the almost two months of war as fertile land is reduced to bare soil. It also states that the destruction of agricultural land continued throughout the week-long truce in Gaza that started Nov. 24, during which the Israeli army was in direct control of the area, and remains so now.
“As food systems collapse across Gaza, we are gravely concerned about the well-being of over two million Palestinians in Gaza who face hunger, food insecurity and loss of livelihood amid the Israeli blockade,” the rights group says in a series of posts on their official X account. “Farmers planted crops like citrus fruit, potatoes, dragon fruit and prickly pear in this area, some of which took years to grow, contributing to the livelihoods of Palestinians in Gaza. Some plots were razed in a day."