The Environmental Quality Authority said that the Israeli occupation army dropped more than 85 thousand tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the aggression on October 7, 2023, which exceeds what was dropped in World War II.

It added in a statement issued today, Wednesday, on the occasion of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Military Conflict, that the occupation's continuous bombing of the Gaza Strip has caused the destruction of vast areas of agricultural land and the contamination of the soil with toxic chemicals that will hinder agriculture for decades.

The Environment Quality Authority pointed out that the occupation used all types of weapons and shells in its ongoing aggression, most notably white phosphorus, which is prohibited by international law under the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons, which targets environmental components, causing serious environmental damage that threatens the lives of humans and living organisms.

She pointed out that the damage to the water resources infrastructure led to the leakage of polluted water into groundwater basins, which threatens a health and environmental disaster that threatens hundreds of thousands of residents for generations to come.

In the West Bank, the Environment Quality Authority said that the settlements and the military training of the occupation army pose a great danger to the Palestinian environment, as vast areas of land are subject to seizure, bulldozing, uprooting of trees and overgrazing, while the waste resulting from the occupation training damages water sources and pollutes the air, which leads to an exacerbation of environmental degradation, as it is estimated that the settlements pump about 40 million cubic meters of untreated wastewater annually into the Palestinian land.

The Environment 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 implement international laws, including the Geneva Protocol and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Environmental Modification Techniques for Military Purposes, to protect the environment and prevent its deterioration as a result of armed conflicts.

She also called for highlighting and documenting the environmental violations taking place in the Palestinian territories, as the environmental damage caused by the occupation poses a serious threat to the health of Palestinians and a threat to the future of the entire region.

Environmental Quality stressed that environmental protection is not just a secondary option or a marginal issue, but rather a fundamental right linked to the right to a clean, safe, pollution-free environment. Any negligence or neglect of this right exposes humanity to catastrophic consequences that threaten environmental sustainability with a real danger that is difficult to remedy.