Israeli ecocide in Gaza pollutes Palestinian futures

Source: Unsplash

Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza has killed over 37,000 Palestinians, destroying Gaza’s ecosystems, waste infrastructure and agricultural land in the process. Known as ‘ecocide,’ the systematic destruction of Gaza’s environment has rendered most of the occupied territory uninhabitable. 

In a new report, the United Nations Environment Programme said Israel’s siege on the Gaza strip has created an unprecedented environmental crisis with over 39 million tons of debris, causing irreversible damage to the ecosystem. 

Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli military has reduced the Gaza strip to rubble, obliterating 90% of Gaza’s greenhouses and targeting local farms, orchards and native olive groves. 

According to an investigation by Forensic Architecture, Israel bombed and bulldozed over 90% of northern Gaza’s farmland by March 2024, rendering the land unusable. In total, over 40% of Gaza’s agricultural land has been destroyed. In northern Gaza, over 90% of the agricultural land was demolished, interrupting centuries of sustainable farming practices. 

The same investigation identifies that Israel has targeted a majority of the territory’s water infrastructure, contaminating the soil, groundwater and seawater with military pollutants. At least one-third of Gaza’s irrigation infrastructure was destroyed by February, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. 

Currently, Israel is invading the designated safe-zone of Rafah, a southern city in the Gaza strip that holds over a million displaced Palestinians. 

While invading Rafah, the Israeli Defense Forces demolished farms along the Gaza-Israel border, where much of the Strip’s agricultural land is located. Footage coming out of refugee camps in Rafah reveal that displaced Palestinians are being burned alive in refugee tents. 

Nada Majdalani, the Palestine director of EcoPeace Middle East, said Israel’s environmental siege on Gaza has ravaged “every aspect” of the environment. 

Prior to Oct. 7, Israel deliberately limited Palestinian access to resources; the state’s 16-year blockade of Gaza over land, sea and air restricted the import of goods and technologies, allowing Israel to limit Gaza’s access to electricity, water and food. 

In response to Israel's control over their resources, Palestinians boosted Gaza’s energy sector resilience through solar panels ––- some even estimate that Gaza has the highest density of rooftop solar systems in the world. 

In the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, Israel imposed a complete blockade on Gaza, leaving Palestinians in a blackout with no access to food, water or electricity. Solar panels became integral to connecting Palestinians with the outside world, which became especially important for documenting the brutality inflicted upon them. 

“Destroying the solar panels is not only targeting the wellbeing of people, it’s diminishing the efforts of the Gazans in taking climate adaptation measures to secure clean energy,” Majdalani said. “These solar installations now lay in the rubble with the buildings destroyed, setting back Gaza’s climate change efforts.” 

The new UNEP report stressed that solar panel damage posed significant risk towards Gazans by exposing them to heavy metal leakage. 

Israel’s destruction of Palestinian life directly contributes to the settler-colony’s carbon dioxide production. 

A report by Queen Mary University of London projected that in the first 60 days since Oct. 7, Israel released 281,315 tonnes of carbon dioxide through its constant bombing — more than the annual emissions of 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations.

By November, the second month of the siege, Israel had already dropped two Hiroshimas’ worth of conventional explosives on the Strip, which is the size of Detroit.

As Gaza endures the ninth month of this ongoing genocide, Israel’s climate impact has only grown exponentially, accelerating the disproportionate environmental destruction experienced by Palestinians. 

In occupied Palestine, average temperatures rose by 1.5 degrees Celsius between 1950 and 2017, with a forecasted increase of 4°C by the end of the century, compared to worldwide temperatures, which have increased by an average of 1.1°C since pre-industrial times. 

Now, during the ongoing genocide, scorching heat in Gaza from climate change is accelerating a massive public health crisis, as Palestinians suffer from water contamination, dehydration, heat stroke, and sanitation-related diseases. 

Palestinians were already experiencing unbearable heat prior to Oct. 7, as Israel hindered their access to electricity and cooling technologies. 

While Israel denies Palestinians access to manage their own resources, Israeli settlers consume six times more water than Palestinians, destroy native olive groves and generate massive amounts of waste that are dumped onto Palestinian lands. 

The Israeli government also restricted Gaza’s ability to construct water and waste treatment facilities, effectively poisoning Palestinians by leaving them to drink from heavily polluted water. From 2008 to 2009, a UN report found that Israel deliberately bombed water treatment and sewage facilities in Gaza in order to inflict collective punishment on Palestinians. 

Over the past nine-month bombing campaign, Israel has damaged five out of six solid waste management systems in Gaza.

Israel’s systematic destruction of Palestinian resources has prevented Gazan farmers from maintaining sustainable agricultural practices. 

During the current genocide, millions of Palestinians are on the brink of famine without access to locally-grown food; many are eating animal feed and grass after Israel razed Palestinian farmland. 

Israel has been accused of deploying multiple banned munitions on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, such as white phosphorous and thermal weapons. These weapons can cause fatal burns, blindness, cancer and amputations, and they also poison the surrounding soil and crops—rendering the land unusable. 

Under international law, the deployment of banned munitions against civilians can be considered a war crime. 

From Apr. 25 to Apr. 29, Northwestern students, staff and faculty gathered on Deering Meadow with hundreds of local community members to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza through a Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which culminated in an agreement between a group of student and faculty representatives and the administration. 

The agreement signed between the negotiating team and the administration allowed students to maintain a presence on Deering Meadow through Jun. 1, where they continued to hold vigils, rallies and educational panels. 

Fossil Free NU, a Northwestern student group that advocates for divestment from fossil fuels, drew parallels between the genocide in Gaza and climate activism. 

A banner hung by the organization for Earth Day on April 22 read, “Fund Climate Action Not Genocide #ReclaimEarthDay.”

Student groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Fossil Free NU have emphasized how Palestinian liberation is fundamentally connected to climate justice, as Israel structurally impedes the ability for Palestinians to live sustainably. 

As students continue to advocate for environmental justice, they cannot leave Palestinians out of the conversation. 

Decolonizing Israel and returning ancestral land back to Palestinians is essential for creating a sustainable future where both Israelis and Palestinians can properly steward the land and sea.