The extent, scope and duration of the destruction caused by Israel’s war on Gaza have not been seen in modern history. The Gaza Strip, an area roughly the size of Detroit, Michigan, has been reduced to rubble by military action that has not only destroyed lives and livelihoods but also poisoned the environment, in a pattern that began long before 2023 but which has been ramped up by the level of bombing since. While Israeli leaders may believe that this destruction will help achieve their military and security objectives, they are seemingly not taking into account that this environmental catastrophe will also have devastating effects on their land and citizens.
Chemicals released or created by bombs that will increase chances of birth defects, cancer, respiratory problems and heart disease are spreading through the air, water and soil. Given the way these substances travel, their effects will be felt far beyond Gaza. Perchlorates will travel to Israel in the water supply, blocking the thyroids of citizens and leading to birth defects and fertility issues. Untreated sewage will spread through the Mediterranean, reaching countries along the coast, including Lebanon and Syria, poisoning drinking water supplies. Particulates in the air will be blown into Israel and Egypt, leading to increased respiratory illnesses and heart disease for anyone in their path. And the carbon released is in large enough quantities to measurably increase climate change, affecting every person on the planet.
This is a pattern of environmental destruction that began long before Oct. 7, 2023. Over 97% of the water in Gaza was already unsuitable for consumption before this war began; the remainder is being polluted on a daily basis with heavy metals and toxic chemicals from bombs and munitions. Israel is also blocking all fuel and electricity, preventing treatment plants from cleaning these polluted water sources. The soils throughout Gaza have been stripped of their productivity. The once fertile soil that served as the backbone of the economy and way of life in Gaza has been reduced to contaminated topsoil and a receptacle for spent bombs and residue from artillery shells. Moreover, the Israeli military has uprooted trees and shrubs throughout Gaza, further damaging the soil’s vitality. In June 2024, the United Nations Environment Programme said that this persistent uprooting of vegetation will “impact future cultivation and make the land vulnerable to desertification.” The air is also unbreathable in the Gaza Strip. Air pollution is increasing at unprecedented rates, whether from the dust, particulate matter and toxic chemicals released by the destruction of buildings or from the increased burning of waste for cooking and heating. No aspect of the environment in Gaza has escaped Israel’s military onslaught.
Although it is not officially an international crime recognized by the International Criminal Court, ecocide is currently proscribed by law in 15 countries. The term was first used in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, when the United States sprayed over 20 million gallons of Agent Orange, a deadly mixture of herbicides, to render parts of the country uninhabitable by destroying its land, water and air. This level of destruction could not be contained. The catastrophic environmental and health impacts traveled from Vietnam to neighboring Laos and Cambodia, and afflicted entire populations, no matter which side they had been on. Although the last use of Agent Orange was in 1971, the negative health effects and environmental destruction are still present in Vietnam and the surrounding nations today. Another ecocide is taking place today in Ukraine, where Russia has demolished dams, leading to flooding throughout the country, and destroyed thousands of acres of agricultural land, as well as contaminating Ukraine’s groundwater supplies. This ecocide has spread globally in direct and indirect ways, precipitating a food crisis across Africa as well as energy shortages across Europe, leading to spikes in prices all over the world.
Water is fundamental to all life on the planet. Although Palestinians and Israelis have struggled with supplies in this water-poor region, Israel has wielded technology and its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank to seize control of this vital resource. Israel has built extensive desalination facilities to compensate for the gradual draining of the groundwater by overconsumption. Its ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip has deprived Palestinians of water and water treatment capacity for decades, leading to tremendous disparities in water access. In 2017, Amnesty International reported that Israelis consume at least four times as much water as Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Back then, Palestinians consumed between 5 and 19 gallons of water per person per day, well below the minimum of 100 liters (roughly 26 gallons) recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), while the average Israeli consumed approximately 80 gallons. This is the background to today’s environmental catastrophe, an already dire situation made much worse by the current conflict. In August 2024, Oxfam said that Palestinians in Gaza have “almost no water to drink, let alone to bathe, cook, or clean,” and it has only gotten worse since then. The U.N. now says that Palestinians in Gaza have between approximately half a gallon and 2 gallons per person per day for drinking, cooking and hygiene.
It is not just the quantity of the water that poses problems. The quality of the existing supply is also dangerous to life. Toxic heavy metals, such as uranium, lead, arsenic and cadmium from exploded bombs, are seeping into the soil and, because they do not degrade, migrating into the groundwater supply. The health impacts of exposure to heavy metals are well known. Increased risk of various cancers as well as damage to the brain, lungs and liver are some of the many health issues associated with heavy metal contamination. Moreover, other industrial pollutants that are commonly associated with bombs and artillery, including the explosive compounds TNT and RDX, have polluted the groundwater in Gaza. TNT has been shown to cause liver damage, gastrointestinal issues and hematological effects, such as anemia and other blood-related illnesses, while RDX primarily impacts the nervous system. These chemicals can remain in the water for years, and specific, targeted water treatment technologies are needed to remove them.
While Palestinians in Gaza are exposed to these toxic chemicals and harmful health impacts, citizens in Israel are not immune to them. Approximately 15% of the water Israelis consume is drawn from the Coastal Aquifer that runs directly into the Gaza Strip. Therefore, any contamination of this aquifer directly affects a large amount of water that Israel relies on for everyday use.
Perchlorate is another industrial chemical that is extremely harmful to human life. It is commonly used in rocket fuel and explosives, and is responsible for significant amounts of water contamination around the world. Perchlorate has been found across the Middle East due to the conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and is present in the missiles and explosives that Israel is using in its war on Gaza. As perchlorate gets into the groundwater sources in Gaza, it will have dire health effects for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Perchlorate causes severe thyroid disruptions and harms brain development. Pregnant women, infants and children are especially vulnerable when exposed to perchlorate, since thyroid hormones are vital to the growth and development of fetuses and young children. Children and pregnant women in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel are already being hurt by exposure to perchlorate, which is in the water systems of Palestinians and Israelis because of the war.
Leachate is another toxic wastewater stream that is wreaking havoc on the water supply in Gaza. The proliferation of temporary, poorly managed dump sites throughout Gaza has resulted in the release of this toxic wastewater into the environment. Leachate is generated when rainfall comes into contact with waste and carries associated pollutants and contaminants, including heavy metals, plastics and pharmaceuticals. Typically, engineered landfills have liners at the bottom to prevent leachate from entering the environment, along with collection systems to pump leachate out of the landfill and monitoring systems to ensure that the groundwater beneath the landfill is not contaminated. However, in Gaza, these temporary dump sites do not have liners and are not equipped to manage leachate, which, as a result, is entering the groundwater supply, thus degrading the shared aquifer in the Gaza Strip and along the coast of Israel.
Groundwater is not the only water supply used by Israelis that has been contaminated by the war in Gaza. The Mediterranean Sea is another major source fast becoming toxic to life. Since Israel has blocked fuel and electricity from entering Gaza, the entire sanitation infrastructure there has been shut down. None of Gaza’s five wastewater treatment plants is operational. The vast majority of the wastewater pump stations are not working. Working toilets and showers are limited and difficult to find, with people waiting hours just to use one. According to UNICEF, there is one toilet for every 340 people and one shower for every 1,290 people on average across Gaza.
One consequence of this inability to treat wastewater is that a significant amount of sewage and pollution has entered the Mediterranean, and the tides move the polluted seawater toward Israel. Israel’s desalination plants, which are similar to those in the United States, are not designed to remove contaminants and waste material that are typically found in domestic wastewater. They are only designed to remove dissolved solids, such as salt and chlorides, and other minor impurities (particles, algae and small organic matter) that are typically found in seawater. The presence of raw sewage compromises the effectiveness of the desalination process and ultimately reduces the quality of water produced by the treatment plants. Polluting the Mediterranean also hurts Israel’s fishing and tourism industries. Essentially, Israel’s war is destroying the water sources that it uses to support the needs of its citizens.
With no wastewater treatment and little access to sanitation facilities, waterborne disease has spread rapidly throughout the Gaza Strip. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has reported an alarming increase in hepatitis A in Gaza since the war began, from 85 cases before the war to 40,000 cases in June 2024 to over 100,000 cases as of October 2024. The WHO has also documented the increase of water-related and hygiene-related illnesses, including over 500,000 cases of diarrhea, 103,000 cases of lice and scabies, and the troubling reemergence of polio. As the Palestinians in Gaza are forced to relocate to internal displacement camps, these health issues will continue to spread throughout Gaza and beyond, particularly as its residents are pushed into seeking refuge in neighboring countries. With the lack of sufficient health care services, these issues will only get worse over time. The lack of sanitation infrastructure also has a disproportionate impact on women and girls by preventing them from maintaining basic menstrual hygiene, which impacts both their mental and physical health.
Air traverses borders even more easily and quickly than water, and is just as fundamental to human life. Air quality monitoring stations in Israel near Gaza all showed higher levels of air pollution from October 2023 to January 2024 when compared to the same period in the preceding year, a direct result of Israel’s bombing campaign and the release of toxic matter into the air from homes and structures that had been destroyed or burned. One of the most troubling air pollutants is asbestos, which has been used in many of the older structures, along with the majority of refugee camps located throughout the Gaza Strip. Exposure to asbestos results in cancers of the lung, larynx and ovaries as well as asbestosis, an inflammatory condition affecting the lungs that can cause shortness of breath, coughing and permanent lung damage. Asbestos particles are very small (less than 20 micrometers in length), remain suspended in the air for long periods and travel long distances. These characteristics suggest that asbestos exposure will be a problem for Israeli citizens, especially those who live near Gaza. Along with asbestos, sulfur dioxide and various chemicals have been released from burning plastic. For instance, hydrogen chloride and phosgene are released from burned PVC piping, while carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and hydrochloric acid are released from burned polyethylene. Moreover, with the lack of fuel in Gaza due to Israel’s blockade, Palestinians have resorted to burning solid waste for heat and cooking. This practice releases harmful toxins into the air, including dioxins, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These chemicals are associated with various cancers, heart disease and respiratory illnesses. Air pollutants do not respect borders or national boundaries and will move into Israel and impact its citizens, particularly vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly, who are most susceptible to these illnesses.
Along with the direct health impacts of these air pollutants, there are broader implications for the world. Researchers have estimated that, as of January 2025, direct actions in this war released approximately 1.9 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of running 84 power plants for an entire year. When accounting for the preconflict preparation, the direct conflict and the necessary postconflict construction, an estimated 32.3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions will have been released, which is higher than the annual emissions of over 100 individual countries. Climate scientists have long identified nearby countries in the Middle East, particularly Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as among the most vulnerable areas of the world, susceptible to extreme weather events and other climate disasters, including extreme heat, desertification, drought, water shortages, food insecurity and overall environmental degradation. The impacts of climate change that are experienced in Israel and throughout the region will be worsened as a direct result of the war that it is conducting in Gaza.
The pollution of water and air is often invisible, but there are far more obvious pollutants. A walk through the Gaza Strip today involves being surrounded by rubble from destroyed homes and schools, and navigating an environment full of household waste that is piling up, infested with disease-carrying vermin and insects. Imagine the smells that emanate from Gaza, the smell of decaying waste, gunpowder, residue from explosives and, tragically, rotting flesh from undiscovered bodies under debris. (The last estimate from Reuters stated that the human remains of over 10,000 people are believed to be under the rubble.) Palestinians say that Gaza carries “the smell of death,” and in the current situation, that smell is not going away.
Dealing with waste was already a huge problem before the war. There were only two main landfills in Gaza to receive all of the waste from its 2.2 million residents. These landfills have lacked adequate resources and have been operating far beyond their capacity for years. For instance, 3.9 million tons of waste had been disposed of at the main Johr Edeek landfill in the northern part of Gaza, with waste being piled up 60 to 120 feet above the ground. There have been reports of numerous fires at both landfills. Even before the war, there were not enough waste collection vehicles and transfer trucks to gather the waste and dispose of it properly. The poor waste management system in Gaza had already contributed to several environmental and social issues.
That was before the war. Now, there is no functional waste management system in place whatsoever. The U.N. has stated that the entire solid waste management system in Gaza has collapsed. While around 1,700 tons of solid waste are being generated daily, there are no operational landfills, no large waste transfer vehicles and approximately 140 temporary, unregulated dump sites that have been created across the Gaza Strip. Along with the everyday household waste, an estimated 39 million tons of debris have been generated by Israel’s destruction of homes, buildings and other infrastructure. This conflict-related debris is contaminated with a wide variety of toxins, including asbestos, heavy metals, residue from explosives and other household chemicals. While some of this debris may be reused during reconstruction efforts, the majority of it will need to be managed differently. Will it be transferred to landfills in Israel and become a burden to its own waste management systems? Will it be incinerated and contribute to the poor air quality throughout Israel and the region? Will the Israeli military facilitate the transfer of this waste to other neighboring countries and contribute to the air pollution associated with those activities? Whatever the approach chosen to deal with this waste, the environment in Israel will be severely compromised.
When thinking about waste management in Gaza, another looming calamity involves the management of medical waste. The two primary medical waste treatment facilities, which were able to treat approximately 2.5 tons of infectious and radioactive waste per day before the war, have been destroyed, along with the entire medical waste management apparatus — from autoclaves to incinerators and medical waste collection vehicles. Medical waste from hospitals is known to have a wide variety of hazardous properties, most notably from radioactive isotopes. With the lack of appropriate facilities to manage it, a large amount of untreated medical waste is being placed in temporary dump sites alongside household waste, which means that these radioactive materials will migrate into the groundwater along with other harmful contaminants. Exposure to low levels of radioactive waste can increase overall cancer risk, and the current water treatment processes used to treat groundwater are not equipped to remove radioactive contaminants.
This war has been a complete catastrophe for the environment. But the ecocide will impact both Palestinians and Israelis — and residents in nearby countries — for years to come. The environmental and health effects of war never remain confined to the country where the bombing and fighting occur. They spread. Israel’s water and air quality, along with its ability to manage waste, have been hurt by this ecocide. The extensive pollution of the Mediterranean Sea will also affect neighboring countries, including Egypt and Lebanon, that use it as a drinking water source. Regardless of when this war ends, such effects will be felt for decades.
This is not new. Afghanistan’s environment has been ravaged by war. After the U.S. war in Iraq, which officially ended in 2011, researchers documented long-term health risks and environmental damage, including significant increases in birth defects and anomalies, as well as extreme amounts of lead and uranium in the remaining population, decades after the end of the war. After the ecocide in Vietnam, nursing mothers had traces of toxic herbicides and chemicals in their breast milk. U.S. military personnel continue to have health complications. And the soil, water and biodiversity of Vietnam have been irreversibly altered, five decades after the last batch of Agent Orange was dropped there.
While the devastating impact on the Palestinians has been extensive and well documented, as the war continues, Israeli citizens will start to experience their own tragic outcomes. They will experience increased heavy metal poisoning from exposure to toxic air and water. They will experience increases in respiratory illness and heart disease. Expectant Israeli mothers will experience increases in adverse birth outcomes. The effects of the Gaza ecocide cannot be stopped at a military checkpoint. It is too late to stop much of this harm, which is already spreading through the air and water, but if it is not addressed soon, the reckoning will be felt by Israel’s own citizens for years to come.
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