Only 1.5 percent of Gaza's farmland is accessible and undamaged, less than a square mile, according to the latest satellite survey published by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, which warned the Palestinian territory was on the brink of a “full-scale” starvation.
In its previous survey, published at the end of May, the FAO had indicated that less than five per cent of Gaza farmland was both accessible and undamaged, based on data from the UN Satellite Centre.
The survey, which dates from July 28, found that 8.6 per cent of Gaza's farmland was accessible, but only 1.5 per cent, or 2.3 square kilometres, was both accessible and usable.
An additional 12.4 per cent of farmland is undamaged but not accessible.
An overwhelming majority of Gaza's farmland, 86.1 percent, is damaged, the survey found.
"People are starving not because food is unavailable, but because access is blocked, local agrifood systems have collapsed, and families can no longer sustain even the most basic livelihoods," said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.
Qu called for safe and sustained humanitarian access to restore local food production and avoid a further loss of life.
"The right to food is a basic human right," he said.
Before Israel’s war on Gaza, agriculture accounted for around 10 percent of Gaza's economy.
The FAO estimated that more than 560,000 people, or a quarter of the population, were being at least partially supported by agriculture and fishing.
