The war in Gaza is catastrophic not only to the civilians, but also to animals and to the environemnt. Environmental issues caused by climate change is rising due to increased carbon-dixiode emission caused by bombs dropping on Gaza everyday and its toxicants spreading in the air as well as the soil. The white phosphorus that Isreal dropped in Gaza has long-lasting effect on soil and air, both contaminating air quality and fertile soil. The most war-product issue, climate change, is overlooked in many political discussions, however the environmental degradation of the war leaves lasting impact on the lives of Gazans as they pay the highest price in weather changes, floods, and on top of that civilians casualties both from the Israeli bombing and famine.
The global temperature is rising due to Carbon footprints. There is no onther place other than Gaza that carbon foorprint will be staggering. Within weeks of the start of the War on Gaza, Israel dropped 29,000 bombs on Gaza, an estimate that is close to U.S.'s bombing of Iraq in one year. The indisriminate bombardment not only caused millions of people to leave their home, caused more than 30,000 civilian death, but also including animals, trees, fishes, and the environemnt. The bombardment has a huge consequence for environment as it totaled infrastructure, effecting water and sanitation facilities. The global temperature rose 1.1 degree and in Gaza the temperature will rise 2.5 degree by 2055.
Gaza geography
Gaza is small strip of land as can be seen the map. It is between Israel and the Mediterranean Basin and Egypt. As can bee seen in the map, this 141 sq miles of land had two million of people and is known as one of the densely populated city in the world. More than one percent of that population are killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and 80% are refugees. (Tower, 2024). The southern border where Rafah, the biggest refugee camp locates, have 1.5 million refugee today. This small part of the city allows millions of refugee to rather be crammed in tents. Humanitarian assitance is minimal as Isreal tightens humanitarian blockades throughout its borders. Intense weather excerbates the situation in the camp, like flooding, famine and lack of water. In Gaza the temperature is rising 20% faster than anywhere else in the world, meaning that there would unprecendent drought that would disproportionately effect food supply. The Destruction of farms when the Israeli military invaded also accounts 22% of farms as well as 70% of Gaza's fishing fleet. (Tower, 2024). This impact distrupts the ecosystem as it destroys inhabitants contributing to global climate crises
Israel Impediment of Palestinians livelihood
Gazans were agrarian society; however, Israel
imposed the infamous blackade where from 2006 to 2023, Gazans couldn't farms and earn income by agriculture. This was an Israeli import and export restrictions on the people of Gaza. It bloacked any goods that is going in Gaza and anything that is coming out of Gaza. According to Reliefweb, this wide restriction had a huge effect on farmers and agriculture as 1.3 billion lose in agriculture left a lasting effect on farmers. Not only did Israel impeded goods, they also impeded fertilizers and farm equipments to consolidate the occupation. The blockade also impacted healthcare sector as medical supply import dropped from 40% to 32%. Advanced medical supply could not be important as well. Employment sector has been effected by the blackade. This blockade has continued into the war and now it shifted to blocking humanitarian assistance. Since the start of the war, Isreal has been limiting the entrance of humanitarian assistant. The International Criminal Justice (ICJ), ordered Israel to ensure all humanitarian assitance to be accessible to Palestinians to avoid any genocidal acts, however Israel defied the orders that allow palestinians to live with basic dignity. In fact with in a month of the ICJ case against Israel, the number of humanitarian assitance trucks decreased from 146 to 105. Acute famine is on the brink and in fact Gazans are "80% of the people that make up all people facing famine around the globe." (Tower, 2024).
Few Important sites that share day-to-day situation in Gaza Include:
eye.on.Palentine: Display graphic videos and pictures from gaza on Instagram.
Lama Jamous: little Palestinian journalist that lives in Rafah camp and reports the daily live of Gazans in Rafah. On Instagram.
References
Tower, A. (2024, February 19). The Not-so-hidden Climate Risks for Gaza’s Displaced. Climate Refugees. https://www.climate-refugees.org/spotlight/2023/1/11/gaza
A generation under blockade: Consequences on Israel’s 17-year-blockade of the Gaza Strip [en/ar] - occupied Palestinian territory. ReliefWeb. (2023, January 25). https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/generation-under-blockade-consequences-israels-17-year-blockade-gaza-strip-enar
Assi, S., Assi, S., Lovely, G., Bush, C., Márquez, G. G., Ackerman, S., Burch, S., Marcetic, B., & Abu-Manneh, B. (n.d.). Rafah has long suffered under brutal Israeli assaults. Jacobin. https://jacobin.com/2024/02/rafah-gaza-palestine-israel-refugees-killing
Israel defying ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by failing to allow aid into Gaza. Amnesty International. (2024, February 28). https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/israel-defying-icj-ruling-to-prevent-genocide-by-failing-to-allow-adequate-humanitarian-aid-to-reach-gaza/