Devastated by Israel, Gaza faces an environmental crisis “above imagination”

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Over two years of nearly incessant bombardment, Israeli forces have killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, at least a third of whom are children. The human toll has been called genocide by human rights organizations around the world and by a UN commission, but a new report from an Israeli research center also points to environmental devastation: Gaza’s soil is polluted after the destruction of wastewater treatment plants, sewage contamination is widespread, and particulate matter left by exploded bombs is increasing rates of respiratory illness. 

According to a new report by the Arava Institute, an environmental research institute based in Israel, Gaza is covered with an estimated 61 million tons of rubble, much of which contains asbestos, unexploded munitions, and unburied human remains. “The environmental situation in Gaza before October 7 was a disaster,” said Tareq Abuhamed, who leads the Arava Institute and is Palestinian. Rebuilding even to that prior state of disaster is likely to take decades. 

A report from the UN, published in late September, estimated that nearly $70 billion in damage has been done to Gaza’s roads, buildings, and infrastructure over the past two years, while more than 80 percent of cropland has been destroyed. Less than 10 percent of all hazardous waste is being safely disposed of, and most, by necessity, is being burned or piled in open-air landfills. Untreated wastewater, meanwhile, is dumped directly on the land or into the sea. 

“The garbage becomes mountains, and the mountains are a breeding site for mosquitos and rodents, which spread malaria,” said Yasser El-Nahhal, an environmental chemist and eco-toxicologist with the Islamic University of Gaza. 

Long before Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, Israeli blockades prevented easy access to water, electricity, and food. Rolling blackouts have been common in Palestine for the last 20 years, and many residents relied on small-scale desalination units, plants that make seawater drinkable, and private water tankers to purchase potable water. Now, the aid organization Doctors Without Borders says that only 1 out of every 10 of their requests for water to be imported are approved by Israeli authorities. 

“The environment [was] destroyed before the war,” said El-Nahhal. “But since the war, it has been destroyed several times above imagination.” 

Palestinian researcher Mazin Qumsiyeh of Bethlehem University’s Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability calls what is happening now ecocide: a term broadly defined as the severe, long-term, and widespread destruction of the environment. A growing coalition of countries hopes to legally define ecocide as a crime the International Criminal Court might prosecute.

“Gaza, of course, was a functioning society, even though it was subjected to significant sanctions in the past 16 years that limited supplies,” Qumsiyeh said. “They had a functioning society. They had schools, universities, sewage treatment facilities, and a desalination plant. All of this was destroyed in this genocidal, ecocidal war.” 

Earlier this month, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the world’s largest conservation congress, signed a resolution asserting that ecocide should be treated as a criminal offense. Jojo Mehta, founder of the legal advocacy group Stop Ecocide International, said that while the resolution defines ecocide quite broadly, it could certainly be applied to Israel’s conduct in Gaza. “What’s been happening in terms of the environment in Gaza is horrific,” Mehta said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt in anybody’s mind that it’s ecocidal.” 

Israeli officials did not return multiple requests for comment on this story. 

The Arava report calls for unimpeded aid to Gaza, as well as potable water systems and personal hygiene kits to mitigate disease. The UN, in its September report, wrote that to make Gaza’s environment livable again “will require a cessation of hostilities. The first phase of recovery will focus on saving lives, through restoration of essential services and removal of debris.”

Nonetheless, Qumsiyeh of Bethlehem University said that Palestinians will continue to rebuild—even if, as he believes is likely, the current ceasefire falls apart. “I don’t claim we have a huge success rate,” he said, “But imagine your community being destroyed dozens of times, and you continue to rebuild. That shows an incredible amount of hopefulness.”