Vulnerable People Project Warns That Restricted Access and the Destruction of Tobacco, Wheat, and Greenhouses Threaten the Livelihood and Survival of a Christian Farming Community in South Lebanon
NEWS PROVIDED BY
The Vulnerable People Project (VPP)
Aug. 28, 2026
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 28, 2026 /Standard Newswire/ — Prolonged Israeli restrictions on movement and the destruction of farmland are pushing the Christian village of Debel, in the Bint Jbeil District of southern Lebanon, toward the loss of an entire agricultural season, threatening the livelihoods of a community that has farmed this land for generations. The Vulnerable People Project (VPP) is sounding the alarm over the mounting toll the war is taking not only on Debel’s homes, but on the fields, crops, and heritage its Christian families depend on to survive.
Residents of Debel have been unable to reach their fields because of ongoing raids, security restrictions, and requirements to obtain permission to access the areas where their crops are located. Tobacco cultivation, one of the most important seasonal sources of income in the village, has been hit especially hard: more than half of Debel’s families reportedly depend on tobacco and related agricultural work, and farmers have been unable to properly tend or harvest their crops. Agricultural land has also reportedly been damaged by missile strikes and bulldozing.
The destruction extends well beyond the tobacco fields. Agricultural greenhouses used to grow vegetables and fruit have reportedly been destroyed by the Israeli military, inflicting heavy losses on farming families and cutting local food production. Wheat crops are similarly threatened, as farmers have been unable to reach their fields to harvest, leaving the grain at risk of being lost entirely.
Access to farmland remains one of the gravest obstacles. Beyond the security restrictions, damaged and impassable roads make reaching agricultural areas difficult, and even where roads can be crossed, farmers may still be required to obtain authorization to enter their own land. As a result, crops that would normally be cultivated, maintained, or harvested in this season are being left inaccessible in the ground.
For Debel’s farming families, the land is far more than a source of income. Tobacco, wheat, greenhouse produce, and other crops provide essential seasonal employment and household income, and the loss of a single agricultural season represents a direct and potentially devastating financial blow to families already reeling from the wider conflict. The damage also carries longer-term consequences: missed planting and harvest windows affect future yields, and the destruction of greenhouses, irrigation, and cultivated land will require substantial resources to rebuild.
“For the Christian families of Debel, these fields are not an abstraction — they are how a family eats, how a season’s work becomes a year’s income, how a village that has survived every war before this one stays rooted in its own soil,” said Jason Jones, founder of the Vulnerable People Project. “When you cannot reach your own land without a permit, when your greenhouses are flattened and your wheat is left to rot because it is too dangerous to harvest, you are not only losing a crop — you are being pushed off the land itself. This is how an ancient Christian community in southern Lebanon is worn down: not in a single strike, but season by season, until staying becomes impossible. The world must not let the fields of Debel be emptied in silence.”
VPP warns that the combination of crop destruction, damaged agricultural infrastructure, restricted access, and permit requirements is preventing Debel’s farmers from working their land at the very moment their harvest depends on it — with consequences that reach beyond the fields to the household income, seasonal employment, and agricultural economy of the entire community. The Vulnerable People Project calls on the international community, diplomatic missions, humanitarian organizations, and church leaders to press for the restoration of safe and unconditional access for Debel’s farmers to their land, for the protection of agricultural communities in southern Lebanon, and for urgent support to help these families recover what has already been lost.
VPP field monitoring is tracking the situation and will provide further updates as information becomes available.
For more information about the Vulnerable People Project and its mission, please visit SaveWestBankChristians.com.
PRESS CONTACT: Madison Eviston, +1 (210) 897-6809
ABOUT JASON JONES & THE VULNERABLE PEOPLE PROJECT:
Jason Jones is a film producer, author, activist, and human rights worker. He is president of Movie to Movement, the Human Rights Education Organization (H.E.R.O.) and founder of the Vulnerable People Project. The Vulnerable People Project advocates for persecuted communities around the world, with a focus on exposing human rights abuses and supporting vulnerable individuals regardless of faith or background.
SOURCE The Vulnerable People Project