This report is a rewrite and consolidation of on-the-ground reporting and official statements.

A line that keeps people out

A row of yellow-painted concrete blocks and a fresh Israeli military deployment mark what people in Gaza call the yellow line. Where that line runs, access to the land stops. The area under Israeli control forms a roughly 65 kilometre strip from Rafah in the south up to Beit Hanoun in the north. Its width changes along the way, from about 300 metres to 1,000 metres and sometimes almost 1,500 metres.

The practical effect is brutal simple. Farmers who used to work fields behind that line cannot reach them. The blocks and checkpoints are not just markers. They are a hard refusal to let people back into areas that once produced a large share of Gaza’s food.

Farmers barred from their plots

Enad, a farmer who tended eight dunams growing mallow, peppers, onions and aubergines, used to check his crops with both hope and worry. When tanks pushed into Beit Lahia, he fled with his hands muddy and has not been able to return. Yassin, who owns 17 dunams very close to the old border, says his land ended up inside the yellow line and has become a military zone. He fears the temporary restrictions will become permanent, and that Israel may effectively annex those areas.

Agricultural workers say bulldozers and tanks flattened orchards and fields. For many farmers the loss is more than a house or a tool. Trees take decades to yield fruit. As one farmer put it, a rebuilt home can be finished in months; olive, lemon and grape trees need about 20 years before they produce marketable fruit.

Who says what

IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir described the yellow line as the new border line separating army-held areas from western Gaza. Israeli defence officials have been explicit that the line functions both as a defensive buffer for Israeli communities and as an offensive military deployment.

An Israeli defence minister warned that any attempt to cross that line would be met with direct gunfire and immediate response with no prior warning. An Israeli military spokesperson explained the rules of engagement are tied to preventing incursions across the yellow line.

Scale of the damage and the numbers

  • Agricultural land before the war: about 195,000 dunams across the Gaza Strip.
  • Production value: roughly $343 million, accounting for around 11 percent of Gaza’s GDP before the war.
  • Workers: about 560,000 people were employed full-time or part-time in agriculture.
  • Land now unusable: international assessments say about 94 percent of agricultural land has been rendered unusable either by bombing, bulldozing or because it lies behind the yellow line.
  • Accessible land today: only around 6 percent remains available for farming, mostly in western Gaza.

Before the war, Gaza produced more vegetables than it needed and even exported the surplus. Officials now estimate the food gap has topped 85 percent, and vegetables that were once common have become scarce and expensive.

How the land was hit

Farmers and agricultural experts describe a sequence of actions that destroyed the sector: air strikes targeting fields, bulldozing of orchards and cropland, destruction of irrigation systems, damage to greenhouses and water wells, and limits on the entry of seeds and fertilizers. There are also reports of large-scale pesticide spraying after military operations, and experts say heavy machinery has altered topography and harmed soil fertility at a microbial level.

Consultants and ministry officials argue these were not accidental losses but actions that systematically targeted the agricultural backbone of Gaza’s food supply. The result is extensive unemployment for people who relied on farming and severe damage to what used to be local food resilience.

What is behind the yellow line

The yellow line cuts through roughly half the territory, including parts of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, Beit Lahia, eastern Gaza City, eastern Khan Yunis and Rafah. Authorities in Gaza estimate that eastern Gaza alone holds about 130,000 dunams of agricultural land, with local breakdowns of roughly 30,000 dunams along eastern border areas, 35,000 around Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun and eastern Jabalia, at least 25,000 in Rafah governorate, and about 40,000 in Khan Yunis.

Satellite and aerial imagery show vegetation there largely gone. Much of the area looks like scattered rubble and military positions. Farmers say the ground has been changed so dramatically that returning to previous production levels would be extremely difficult.

People who still try

Not everyone gave up. Some farmers try to work just outside the line. Khaled planted olives, wheat and onions roughly 50 metres from the yellow line, using basic hand tools and water cans because equipment and supplies are not available. He says planting is an act of survival and resistance. Nofal waits for a planned next phase of the ceasefire to take effect so he can return to his fields, but he admits that every attempt to approach the restricted zone risks being shot at.

The picture is harsh. Large parts of Gaza’s food-producing land are off limits, the local agricultural economy is shattered, and many families who once lived from the land are now dependent on outside supplies and aid. For farmers who remember how green the fields used to be, the yellow line is not just a marker on a map. It is a barrier to food, income and recovery.

Reporting summarized from local interviews, governmental statements and international agricultural assessments.