Middle East crisis: land and food systems under threat

As the current escalation in the Middle East deepens - with military action involving US-Israel, armed groups in Lebanon, and Iranian forces - communities whose lives and identities depend on the land they live and farm on are paying a high price.

Large‑scale evacuation orders and ongoing military operations in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley have emptied dozens of villages, cutting off farmers and pastoralists from their fields, rangelands and water sources. Homes, markets, health facilities and renewable energy infrastructure have sustained damage amid fighting. Along Lebanon’s southern border, Israeli forces have carried out aerial spraying of chemical herbicides over agricultural land, forests, and grazing areas—affecting vegetation and cultivated fields. These operations have been documented by ILC EMENA member APN and reported in international media, including France 24 (February 18, 2026).

In the occupied Palestinian territory, ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip continues to devastate lives, homes, farms and essential infrastructure, and in the West Bank, systematic attacks and harassment by Israeli settlers in rural areas are driving the forced displacement of the most vulnerable such as Bedouin, herding and smallholder communities from their lands. (Learn more about these attacks in the reports on our website published by ILC EMENA member PFU).

The West Bank has increasingly become a battlefield. Its skies are now witnessing missiles passing and falling due to the ongoing war in the region, while the area itself lacks any defensive protection.

In Iran, large‑scale strikes on fuel depots, industrial facilities and urban infrastructure have caused severe environmental damage, producing toxic air pollution, acid rain, and hazardous rubble that threaten soils, water sources and the health of nearby communities. Beyond Iran’s borders, the disruption of exports through the Strait of Hormuz, is driving sharp increases in fertilizer prices, forcing farmers, especially smallholders, to reduce input use or abandon fertilizer‑intensive crops, with serious implications for food security and rural livelihoods far beyond the immediate conflict zone.

These dynamics amount to an accelerating dispossession and impoverishment of rural people and a weaponisation of land, food systems and natural resources. This is in direct contradiction with international human rights and humanitarian law, and with global commitments on land rights, sustainable rural development and climate justice.

ILC EMENA stands with its members and partners across the region in denouncing attacks and measures that strip rural communities, including pastoralists and small‑scale food producers, of their land, livelihoods and stewardship over territories and ecosystems.

We urgently call on states and international institutions to:

• Ensure effective protection of rural populations and human rights defenders;
• Halt and reverse forced displacement linked to military operations, settler and militia violence;
• Guarantee safe, equitable access to land, water, rangelands and coastal resources; and
• Prioritise people‑centered, climate‑resilient rural development and just food systems.

Only by upholding land rights and the central role of rural communities in governing land and natural resources can the region move towards just and sustainable peace.