Mohammad Al-Jadba, from Al-Zarqa in eastern Gaza, is a thirty-one-year-old Ph.D. student in geography, but his connection to land in Palestine goes beyond academic interest. Al-Jadba is a farmer who has worked in agriculture since childhood, and he says his decision to study geography stemmed from his deep love for the land, its history, and farming.
“I studied geography because I wanted to tell everyone about the historical events and the geography of this land and our connection to it,” he says. “I also wanted to instill in my students a love for the land.”
Before the war, Al-Jadba worked as a geography teacher for six years. During that time, he taught his students about food security, the land, and Palestinians’ relationship with it.
He and his family were displaced to southern Gaza in May 2025. When a ceasefire agreement was announced that October, he returned to the closest safe point near his home and farmland.
“I stood at the nearest safe point and waited for the army to withdraw,” he says. “Once they left, I moved forward and found that both my home and my farmland had been completely destroyed.”
Al-Jadba says the destruction was so extensive he could only recognize the property by a forty-meter-deep water well located on the land. “My family was in the south waiting for me to call and tell them that our home and land had survived and had not been damaged.”
Instead, he found complete devastation. His nearly four acres of farmland and three water wells are now located inside Israeli military-controlled zones, which means Al-Jadba risks being shot by Israeli forces. Agriculture had been his family’s only source of income. His land had produced crops throughout the year, including cucumbers, squash, melons, watermelons, tomatoes, Swiss chard, spinach, fava beans, oranges, lemons, and olives.
“The land was like paradise,” he explains. “It had heritage olive trees older than I am. To me, these trees are wealth, history, and our economy.”
Agricultural engineer Mohammad Odeh says Israel has devastated Gaza’s agricultural sector, one of the pillars of the Palestinian economy. He explains that more than 95 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land has been rendered unfarmable through Israeli bombardment and the destruction of infrastructure and water wells.
When Al-Jadba returned to his farm, he immediately began clearing the rubble. “Everyone looked at me with surprise,” he says, “because it was completely covered with debris.”
Finding a place for his family to live was his biggest challenge. It took two weeks to clear the land, with the help of his brothers, sisters, and hired workers. And the process was a dangerous one—the land was full of unexploded ordnance and landmines. After clearing part of the land, he pitched a tent where his family now lives. He continued preparing the soil and planted his first crop since his return: onions.
Seeing the land green again restored his hope. “When I looked at my destroyed home and land, I felt sadness and hopelessness,” he says. “But after I planted the onions, I looked at them and felt safe and at peace.”
Al-Jadba says farming has become far more difficult since the war. Before Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s succeeding war, seeds were affordable and high quality, water was available, pesticides and fertilizers were accessible and inexpensive, and the soil was fertile.
Today, he says, fertilizers and pesticides are unavailable, water is scarce, and the land has lost much of its fertility. “The shortage of water is one of our biggest challenges.”
He explains that there were times when his family denied themselves water so that the crops could survive. But rodents, including rats and weasels, have spread significantly during the war, and there is no effective way to control them. Al-Jadba says they have destroyed crops including melons, eggplants, basil, peppers, and pumpkins.
Living close to the Israeli-controlled zone presents another constant danger.
“Israeli soldiers open fire when they change shifts,” says Al-Jadba. Gunfire is often directed toward them without any apparent reason. The shooting leaves him in constant fear, he says. He lost two of his brothers, and he worries about losing another family member. He must remain alert at all times.
“When I hear the sound of military vehicles, I know it’s time for the soldiers to change shifts and that they will start shooting,” he says. “I immediately tell everyone to lie flat on the ground so they won’t be hit.”
He says his mother was wounded by Israeli gunfire while working on the farm in June 2026, and that their family tent was also set on fire by Israeli gunfire.
Al-Jadba concluded the interview with two messages.
His message to Israel was one of resilience and defiance: “If you want to eliminate farmers and agriculture, then kill us. Don’t merely wound us, because if we survive, we will return to farming and rebuild the land.”
His message to the world was: “We challenge anyone who claims that Palestinians sold or abandoned their land. Despite all the dangers, we remain here, steadfast, rebuilding and cultivating our land.”