Ecocide and Genocide in Gaza: How war is unmaking an ecosystem

A people without a land, and a land without its people — these, analysts say, are Israel’s goals in Gaza. There are two paths to achieve them: mass killing and expulsion of Palestinians, and rendering the land itself unlivable. Alongside the crime of genocide emerges another grave horror: ecocide.

While the destruction of buildings and infrastructure in Gaza is visible in every video, the parallel destruction of ecosystems and livelihoods is far less seen.

Before the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, roughly 40% of Gaza’s land was used for farming. Despite its extreme population density, Gaza was largely self-sufficient in vegetables and poultry, and it met much of its demand for olives, fruit, and dairy. Last month, however, the UN reported that only 1.5% of Gaza’s farmland — around 200 hectares — remains both accessible and undamaged, the only land left directly available to feed more than two million people.

One key reason is Israel’s systematic destruction of farmland. Ground troops have destroyed greenhouses; bulldozers have razed orchards, ploughed under crops, and ruined soil; planes have sprayed herbicides over fields.

The Israeli military justifies these assaults by claiming that resistance forces operate from within farms, orchards, and agricultural land — as well as from hospitals, schools, universities, industrial areas, and virtually any other resource Palestinians rely on.

As The Guardian reported, all the army has to do to justify destruction is to say that resistance fighters operated — or might operate — from whatever it wants to destroy. The military is also steadily expanding the buffer zone along Gaza’s eastern border, which encompasses much of the strip’s farmland. Human rights expert Hamza Hamouchene notes that Israel is turning fertile land into desert.

For decades, Israel has uprooted Palestinians’ ancient olive trees to strip them of their livelihoods, weaken their morale, and sever their connection to the land. Olives are vital both materially — making up 14% of Palestine’s economy — and symbolically. Without olive trees, there can be no olive branches.

Israel’s scorched-earth strategy, combined with its blockade of food supplies, guarantees famine.

The assault has also collapsed Gaza’s sewage treatment. Raw sewage floods the land, seeps into aquifers, and contaminates coastal waters. Waste management has likewise broken down, leaving mountains of garbage rotting in the rubble, burning in open air, or dumped in informal sites that leach pollutants.

Before the war, Gazans had access to about 85 liters of water per person per day — barely meeting minimum recommended levels. By February 2025, the average had fallen to just 5.7 liters. The coastal aquifer — Gaza’s critical freshwater source — is increasingly threatened by saltwater intrusion, which, past a certain point, makes the water unusable.

The UN Environment Programme estimated last year that Gaza’s destruction has left an average of 107 kilograms of rubble per square meter. Much of it is mixed with asbestos, unexploded ordnance, human remains, and toxins released by weapons. Munitions contain heavy metals such as lead, copper, manganese, aluminum compounds, mercury, and depleted uranium.

Credible reports also indicate Israel’s illegal use of white phosphorus — a horrific incendiary chemical weapon that contaminates soil and water. Toxic dust and smoke inhalation are having devastating health impacts.

Beyond the immediate toll on Gazan lives, the carbon emissions from Israel’s assault are staggering: both from the war’s direct emissions and from the colossal climate cost of reconstruction. Rebuilding Gaza alone would produce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of an average-sized country’s annual output.

When ecocide is considered alongside genocide, Israel’s overarching project to erase both the Palestinian people and their homeland becomes clearer. The destruction of ecosystems and means of survival appears to be a core strategic objective — what some have begun calling a holocide, the obliteration of every aspect of life in Gaza.

As The Guardian noted, even in the absence of a specific law against ecocide, the annihilation of Palestinian ecosystems stands in blatant violation of Article 8 of the Rome Statute, and must be recognized alongside the crime of genocide.