In Gaza's al-Mawasi, guava farmers salvage a harvest from 500 of their 3,000 dunams

Khaled Al-Najjar walks through what is left of his orchard in al-Mawasi, checking guavas ripe enough to pick. There is little left to check.

Before the war, the 56-year-old father of eight cultivated around 3,000 dunams of land in this stretch of Khan Younis. That figure has fallen to roughly 500 dunams that can still be farmed, he told The New Arab. Some of the rest is inaccessible. Other parts are now covered with tents sheltering displaced families.

"This land used to be full of trees and workers, but today, some parts are inaccessible, while others have become shelters for displaced people. We are no longer farming the way we used to," Al-Najjar said.

The trees that survived bombardment and bulldozing face a second threat: scarcity. Farmers describe shortages of water, fertilizer, pesticides and fuel that make it nearly impossible to keep surviving trees productive. "Even the trees that survived need to be saved," Al-Najjar said. "When the trees produce less, farmers lose money and workers lose the days they depend on."

Ibrahim Shehadeh, an agricultural worker in Khan Younis, said the harvest once required large crews during peak season. Now, he said, there is far less work, and farmers are collecting whatever fruit remains on the trees rather than leaving anything behind.

A sector-wide collapse

The guava numbers reflect a broader pattern. Agricultural researcher Hossam Qasim told The New Arab that Gaza had roughly 1,700 dunams planted with guava before the war. That figure has fallen to less than 100 dunams, he said.

Qasim said the damage extends beyond the trees themselves. Land, water networks and irrigation infrastructure have also been damaged, and reaching agricultural areas has grown harder. He said salinity in some al-Mawasi water sources has risen from about 400 parts per million to between 4,000 and 5,000 parts per million, a level that can suppress yields and threaten trees' long-term survival.

Gaza's Ministry of Agriculture puts the sector's total damage and losses at roughly $3 billion, including about $1.49 billion in direct damage and $1.59 billion in indirect losses, spokesperson Raafat Asaliya told The New Arab.

The collapse has reached Gaza's markets. At a stall in Khan Younis, Maysaa Abu Khalil said she now pays $10 a kilogram for guava that cost less than a dollar before the war. "Fruit has become something we buy only when the household budget allows," she said.

Al-Najjar said he is not asking for his land back overnight. "What matters now is stopping the losses and allowing us to reach our land again," he said. "The land knows its owners, but what happened has made it impossible for us to care for it as we once did."