The war between Israel and Gaza has taken the lives of over 70,000 reported Palestinians, but satellite images by Kent State geographer He Yin have also found the demolition of 89 percent of Gaza's annual crops. The destruction of Gaza’s ecology may be permanent and poses a risk of long-term desertification, according to the UN Environment Programme.
Colonizing Gaza’s Land, Water, and Air
The Israel-Gaza war has had profoundly damaging effects on Gaza’s land and natural resources. The immediate carbon emissions from the war are staggering, with a mean estimate of 536,410 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the first 120 days of war, 90% of which are attributed to Israel’s air bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza. This is greater than the annual carbon footprint of many climate-vulnerable nations. Additionally, byproducts of destructive Israeli military activity include sewage systems that have collapsed. This forces Gazans to use cesspits for sanitation, which promptly leads to increased contamination of the aquifers Gazans rely on for water. Military activity has also damaged soil structure, reducing the soil’s ability to absorb water, increasing runoff and flood risks, and reducing groundwater recharge. As a result, 3.5 million cubic feet of raw sewage and wastewater spills seep into Gaza’s porous soils, contaminating underground water reserves critical for crop irrigation. The effects of these destructions are that Gazans have little to no access to clean water, nor the ability to grow food to survive the war-induced famine.
Cut-off of Water Sources for Gazans
By 2023, more than 97 percent of Gaza’s once clean underground water was unfit for drinking. Due to well water being increasingly restricted for irrigating crops, Gazans typically rely on public water supplies that primarily come from seawater desalination plants built with international aid, alongside water delivered from Israel through three cross-border pipelines. However, since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, public supplies have dramatically diminished. In October 2024, the Palestine Water Authority reported that 85 percent of water facilities were either partly or completely damaged due to Israeli aggression. Output from water-supply wells had halved, desalination plants lacked power, and Israel had reduced deliveries down the pipeline. A survey by Solution CRM found that only 14 percent of households still relied on public water supplies. Most were obtaining water from potentially contaminated open wells or unregulated private tankers. According to Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, the tactic of limited access to clean water “is clearly employed as a weapon in Gaza against [the] Palestinian civil population.”No Soil, No Farms, No Food
98% of Gaza’s tree cropland has been destroyed by Israeli bombardment and military earthworks, debris, or forced displacement of its caretakers. Military uprooting trees thins topsoil, “impact[ing] future cultivation [and] mak[ing] the land vulnerable to desertification.” Gaza’s lush strawberry fields, olive trees, and lemon trees have all been wiped out by the 80,000-plus tons of bombs Israel has dropped. Yet, Palestine as a whole experiences the environmental consequences of the war. In the West Bank, the October 7th attacks incited an increase in settler violence. Rates of land grabbing, the destruction of culturally significant olive groves, and damage or obstruction to water resources are at record highs, often with the support of the Israeli authority. The ramifications of loss of agricultural land are consequently tied to food insecurity, poor livelihoods, identity crises, and debt spirals for farmers. Settler expansion to natural reserves has also constrained biodiversity monitoring and access to nature.
White Phosphous
Israel’s use of white phosphorus—the same chemical the United States used during the Vietnam War, for which the term ‘ecocide’ was coined—has also polluted Gaza's soil with radioactive and carcinogenic elements, such as depleted uranium and phosphates. The use of white phosphorus by Israeli forces has led to severe environmental and health consequences, with long-term exposure causing respiratory diseases and cancer.