A CEASEFIRE may be in place in Gaza, but extensive damage to its agriculture has already been done, leaving the region鈥檚 1.4 million people facing 鈥渁cute shortages鈥� of food, says the UN.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization announced on 30 January that many of the 10,000 small farms in Gaza have been destroyed following the Israeli military action that started on 27 December.
The FAO鈥檚 Luigi Damiani, who has surveyed the damage, told New 杏吧原创 from Jerusalem that tanks were the main problem: 鈥淥n land used to run tanks, cultivation has been wiped out, including the strawberry fields in the north.鈥� Tanks have also damaged irrigation pipes and wells, he adds.
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鈥淥n land used to run tanks, cultivation has been wiped out, including the northern strawberry fields鈥�
Meanwhile, an FAO report says that shelling has destroyed greenhouses, poultry barns, feed stores and animals.
Damiani believes that livestock may continue to die because of limited feed and grazing sites. He says grazing has been reduced due to the risk of unexploded ammunition, and also because Israel has widened a no-go zone inside the border from a few hundred metres to 3 kilometres.
The UN World Food Programme and other agencies are bringing emergency rations into Gaza. The FAO wants $6.5 million for seeds, fertiliser and animal feed, as well as to restore irrigation.