In Gaza, farmers are cultivating every scrap of undamaged land to stave off starvation, despite severe shortages of water, fertiliser and pesticide, and with more than 80% of greenhouses destroyed. The work is deadly: Saqer Abu Rabee's son Yousef, a leading figure in an agricultural collective, was killed by a drone strike while working his family's plot in Beit Lahiya in October 2024, and Abu Rabee's brother Bilal was killed in July while retrieving farming supplies. Abu Rabee believes farmers are being deliberately targeted for helping sustain Palestinian communities, a claim the Israel Defense Forces deny, saying they only strike imminent threats from Hamas.

Despite the dangers, Abu Rabee continues farming a 1.4-hectare plot that was bulldozed during the war, and says his family has produced hundreds of thousands of vegetable seedlings, helping crash local prices – aubergines now cost under two shekels a kilogram compared with 40 shekels months earlier. He argues Beit Lahiya, once known as Gaza's "food basket", is key to preventing famine. Although increased aid deliveries under the ceasefire have eased last year's famine conditions, UN agencies say 1.4 million people – 67% of Gaza's population – still face crisis-level food insecurity, and the FAO's director general has warned that recovery will stay fragile without rebuilt domestic food production.