Agricultural sector in danger: Repercussions of Israeli attacks on Southern Lebanon's agriculture

Report by Lara El Hachem, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi

Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, Israel has adopted a scorched-earth policy in south Lebanon to achieve three objectives:

-         Exposing resistance elements targeting Israeli surveillance and monitoring devices from within forests and gardens.

-         Keeping Hezbollah away from the border.

-         Displacing residents of border villages after losing their livelihoods.

Israel has burned more than 2,000 dunams of forests and agricultural wealth using phosphorus and highly flammable bombs, targeting villages up to five kilometers from the border.

As a result, Hezbollah fighters lost the forest cover for their operations, prompting the party to reconsider its military deployment tactics adjacent to the Blue Line.

Most residents of the border villages have been displaced, losing their agricultural lands, not to mention the environmental damage.

The agricultural season in the south has been severely affected.

Farmers are hesitant to work in their southern fields, even the fertile ones, during the planting season due to fears of war expansion, which has moved from border villages to southern areas like Nabatieh and Ghaziyeh. This threatens future crops such as olives and grapes, which constitute 14% of Lebanon's production, and other southern fruits, accounting for 40% of the domestic output.

In Wazzani, covering about 15% of Lebanon's production with watermelons and yellow melons, the land has not been prepared for agriculture at all. Even vegetables usually planted in greenhouses, constituting 35% of Lebanon's production, have not been planted yet, leading to price hikes, expected to worsen during Ramadan.

Israeli targeting extends beyond military objectives to environmental damage, affecting food security by reducing local agricultural production, including southern grains and wheat, constituting 18% of domestic output.

The Agriculture Ministry and the government face a real crisis, needing agricultural plans to balance agricultural product supply and demand to ensure food security amid the near-complete evacuation of towns and villages, causing loss to their inhabitants.