The Israel-Hamas war has devastated Gaza in ways that may be irreversible — and a picture of the environmental harm is only just beginning to emerge, as violence spreads across the region.
Israel has dropped thousands of bombs, wiping out most of Gaza’s tree cover and agricultural land in addition to buildings, while leaving behind toxic debris and destroying water and sanitation facilities. Greenhouse gas emissions are stacking up from explosions, military vehicles and overseas weapons shipments.
As fighting in Lebanon and tensions between Israel and Iran continue to escalate, so too do concerns about the climate and environmental impact of the war.
“The intensity of it is an order magnitude greater than we’ve seen before — because it has been ongoing for so long, because it has been this deliberate effort to cause very severe damage to Gaza,” said Doug Weir, director at the U.K.-based Conflict and Environment Observatory, …