Before the conflict, herding goats and sheep brought stability for Mohammed, his wife and their three daughters. From dawn to dusk, he tended to more than 80 sheep and goats, one camel, a cow and its calf. He sold animals to provide for his family and reinvested when production was strong.

Now, more than two years of conflict have disrupted that stability.

Not long after the conflict began, Mohammed's house was hit in an airstrike that killed his wife, two of his daughters and his parents. Only he and his four-year-old daughter survived. Mohammed himself suffered severe injuries that led to the amputation of one leg.

The loss of his family was profoundly devastating. The airstrikes and shelling that took away his family also destroyed his livelihood and ability to provide for himself. Mohammed lost all but about twenty sheep and goats.

The same events also destroyed his livelihood. He lost nearly all of his animals, with only about twenty sheep and goats remaining. Managing them became increasingly difficult due to his injury, and he lacked the resources to cover rising costs for feed and veterinary care or to hire help.

But tending to livestock had always been more than a job for him.

"I started herding at the age of 18, learning the trade from my father," he says. "For years, this was the foundation of my family's life and my only source of income."

Determined to provide for his daughter, Mohammed began rebuilding with what he had left.

Before the conflict, small ruminants had been key to food security and incomes in the Gaza Strip. Herding allowed families to be self-sufficient in fresh milk and partially self-sufficient in red meat. Approximately 95 000 households (about a quarter of the overall population in the Gaza Strip) relied fully or partially on agriculture, including herding, for their livelihoods.

According to assessments from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the conflict has severely affected these livelihoods and significantly constrained the availability of agricultural inputs, with severe consequences on food availability.

To support herders' livelihoods and food security in the Gaza Strip, FAO began emergency distributions of animal feed and veterinary kits in 2024.

In summer 2025, FAO conducted a detailed assessment to identify herders with at least one sheep or goat that survived the conflict. Beginning in October 2025, FAO provided these herders with veterinary kits and conditional cash assistance, enabling them to purchase increasingly scarce and expensive inputs for animal care.

Since the ceasefire of 10 October 2025, FAO has additionally distributed approximately 2 440 metric tonnes of high-quality animal feed for small ruminants and working animals providing public services (e.g. waste disposal).

Mohammed was one of more than 2 000 herders who received this support – without which, he says, all of his livestock would have likely died.

"One of my biggest challenges has been ensuring a steady supply of feed and access to essential vaccines, especially to protect newborn animals. I lost several of those that survived airstrikes due to a lack of vaccinations," he says.

Using the conditional cash, he bought additional feed and veterinary kits, leveraging local connections to find suppliers with available stocks and making long, often exhausting journeys to reach them.

He used the rest of the cash to hire and train workers to manage his remaining herd. Mohammed now supervises the workers as they feed, milk and administer treatments. He says the cash assistance has helped him adapt to the realities of herding with a disability.

"Despite my injury and the challenges I face, I am determined," he says.

Mohammed says that his animals' health has improved. Milk production has increased, allowing him to produce cheese and yogurt for his family, and more recently, to sell within his community.

He plans to use the additional income to restock his herd and increase production. He hopes to save enough to move with his daughter out of the tent where they have been living after repeated displacements. For the first time in more than two years, he says he sees a path back to the life he once knew – the way of life passed down from his late father and from his father before him.

"My goal for the future is to maintain and grow my herd and to secure a more suitable and stable place for raising my animals. I want to rebuild my livelihood one sheep and goat at a time and create a better future for my daughter," Mohammed says.

Across the Gaza Strip, there is a broader need to restore livelihoods. Farmers, herders and fishers require support at scale to restart local food production. This includes emergency distribution of animal feed and veterinary supplies, as well as conditional cash support for irrigation and drinking water, feed, veterinary care, land rehabilitation, infrastructure repair and crop inputs, reaching more than 3 000 farming and herding households — around 20 000 people.

For many families, this type of support is not only about restoring livelihoods, but about sustaining food production and access in the intermediate term. While delivering this support, FAO is also developing a 10-year recovery plan to help rebuild a more resilient and sustainable agrifood sector in the Gaza Strip.

Emergency distributions of essential agricultural inputs to herders were funded by the Governments of Belgium, Italy, and Norway. Conditional cash assistance for herders is funded by the European Union's Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and the Government of Ireland.

The story and photos can be found here: https://www.fao.org/newsroom/story/starting-over-in-the-gaza-strip/en