The Environmental Quality Authority said that the Israeli occupation army has dropped more than 85,000 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip since the start of the aggression on October 7, 2023, exceeding what was dropped in World War II.
She added in a statement issued on Wednesday, on the occasion of the International Day for the Prevention of the Use of the Environment in Wars and Military Conflicts, that the continuous occupation bombardment of the Gaza Strip has caused the destruction of large areas of agricultural land and contaminated the soil with toxic chemicals that hinder agriculture for decades.
The “Quality of the Environment” pointed out that the occupation used in its continuous aggression all types of weapons and missiles, most notably white phosphorus, which is prohibited by international law under the Convention on Conventional Weapons of the United Nations, which targets the components of the environment, causing serious environmental damage that threatens human life and living beings.
She pointed out that the damage to the infrastructure of water sources led to the intrusion of contaminated water into the groundwaters, which portends a health and environmental disaster that threatens hundreds of thousands of residents for generations to come.
In the West Bank, the “Environmental Quality” said that the settlements and military training of the occupation army represent a great danger to the Palestinian environment, as large areas of land are subjected to seizure, bulldozing and uprooting trees, while the waste resulting from the occupation exercises damages water sources and air pollution, exacerbating environmental degradation, as it is estimated that the settlements pump about 40 million cubic meters of untreated wastewater annually into the Palestinian territory.
The “Environmental Quality” called on the United Nations and the international community to take urgent measures to stop the ongoing aggression and prevent the exploitation of the environment for military purposes, and to apply international laws, including the Geneva Protocol and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Environmental Change Techniques for Military Purposes, to protect the environment and prevent its deterioration as a result of armed conflicts.
