This article first appeared on our partner site, Independent Arabia
Farmer Enad approaches the yellow line in Gaza with caution. He stops at the point closest to his cultivated land, focusing his gaze in the hope of catching sight of some green grass that would put his mind at ease about his crops. He interlaces his fingers and fidgets nervously, afraid that he will not be able to return to farming. While Israeli planes bombed Gaza and tanks swept through its cities during the war, Enad was busy cultivating his eight dunams of land (a dunam is around 1,000 square metres), planting mallow, peppers, onions and aubergines. He was conscious that the fruits of his labour would feed the hungry people trapped in the territory.
His hands were covered in mud when the Israeli army reached the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, forcing him to flee the tank fire. Like other farmers, Enad has been unable to return to his land since then, as the yellow line has swallowed it up.
According to the ‘Peace to Prosperity’ plan, the Israeli army must withdraw from the centres of Gaza’s cities to an imaginary border called the yellow line and redeploy its soldiers along 53 per cent of the Strip’s territory. However, as the ceasefire took effect, Tel Aviv began marking the truce line by placing hundreds of yellow-painted concrete blocks, preventing Palestinians from returning to these areas. This new positioning of the army made it almost impossible for farmers and other locals to access their agricultural lands, which lie behind the yellow line, as Israel controls a 65-kilometre (approximately 40-mile) stretch from Rafah in the south to Beit Hanoun in the north, varying in width from 300 to 1,000 metres, and sometimes extending up to 1,500 metres.
Behind the yellow line, in areas controlled by the Israeli army, lies about 60 per cent of the fertile agricultural land that used to be the breadbasket of the Gaza Strip. However, as Tel Aviv continues to control this area and refuses to withdraw despite entering the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan, hopes of returning to farm the land are beginning to fade.
One kilometre from the actual border of the Gaza Strip with Israel, as it was before 7 October 2023, lies the land of Yassin. Speaking to Independent Arabia, the farmer shared: “I own 17 dunams of agricultural land that is still under Israeli control inside the yellow line.”
This land was an important source of food for Gazans, providing vegetables, grains and ripe fruit. It was also a source of livelihood for Yassin and the farm’s workers, but it has been turned into a military zone that he is allowed neither to access nor to cultivate.
Yassin left his land and abandoned farming, and today he fears that Israel will seize his land and put it across the new borders of Gaza, as Tel Aviv plans to turn the yellow line into a new border for the devastated land. “The army destroyed my house, and bulldozers and tanks razed the land. For two years, I have been unable to access [my land] to plant, farm and tend to it, and I don’t think it will be possible for me to farm it after this. We are used to Israel turning ‘temporary measures’ into permanent ones,” he added.
Yassin grieves the razed trees more than the ruins of his own home, as farming is all he knows: “The house can be rebuilt in a few months, but the lemon, olive and grape trees need 20 years to bear fruit that is suitable for consumption.” He said that the army’s continued presence within the yellow line means the death of Gaza and the continuation of starvation and dependence on imports.
Farmers in Gaza fear that they will not be able to return to tend their land, as they believe Israel does not intend to withdraw from the yellow line. The reason for this is not only to do with the surrender of weapons by Hamas, but Israel’s own stated plans to annex part of the Gaza Strip.
IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir openly declared: “The yellow line separating the areas under army control from the western areas of Gaza represents the new border line between Israel and the Strip. It is a forward defensive line for the communities and an offensive line.”
Israel has therefore turned the yellow line into a de facto border and refuses to withdraw to the red line marked on the maps included in Trump’s plan for Gaza. This means that the prospects for the revival of agriculture are effectively over. Farmers will not be able to cultivate their lands again, and Gaza will never again be self-sufficient in vegetables. It will remain dependent on imports from abroad, if Israel permits their entry in the first place.
Before the war in Gaza, agricultural land covered 195,000 dunams of the Strip’s territory. Just under half of this land was planted with some 55 varieties of vegetables, while grains and fruit trees populated the rest. However, tanks, bulldozers and warplanes have completely destroyed these fields, directly impacting production.
According to data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the agricultural sector accounted for about 11 per cent of Gaza’s gross domestic product before the war, with a production value of $343 million (approximately £270 million).
