Farmers in Gaza, including Taysir Dahdouh from the Zeytun neighbourhood east of Gaza City, are working to rebuild their smallholdings after the destruction of greenhouses during the conflict that began on 7 October 2023. Dahdouh now requires tools, seeds, fertilizer, and water to resume growing cucumbers and tomatoes.

Alessandro Mrakic, Head of the Gaza Office for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), told UN News that families displaced multiple times from heavily bombed areas have returned and started farming again. He stated, “We have provided 200 relief housing units to provide shelter to the families who came back and started, as you see behind me, agriculture – started producing eggplants, tomatoes, molokhia, among others.”

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has expanded its cash assistance program to support approximately 1,500 Palestinian farmers cultivating land across Gaza during the 2026 planting season, aiming to produce fresh vegetables for over 100,000 people.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that people forced to move within Gaza risk losing access to basic services. Despite these challenges, WFP and its partners reached more than a quarter of a million people across 36 distribution sites in the first 12 days of July 2026.

In the West Bank, settler attacks have accounted for about 55% of all Palestinian injuries so far in 2026. UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric conveyed that the Secretary-General is “deeply alarmed” by Israeli authorities granting city status to Givat Ze’ev, a settlement northwest of Jerusalem, emphasizing that this designation “does not alter the city’s legal status under international law as part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Additionally, Ramiz Alakbarov, Deputy Special Coordinator for the peace process, welcomed new commitments totaling nearly $58 million from eight Member States to the UN Horizon Fund and urged further partners to join the initiative.

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