How the Environmental Toll of the Gaza War is Spreading Toxic Hazards to Israel

Displaced Palestinians walk past sewage flowing into the streets of the southern town of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip on July 4, 2024.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and representatives of the Board of Peace agreed to set up a working group on sanitation and public health affecting both Israel and Gaza. Its membership and detailed operating structure are yet to be made public. It appears it has finally dawned on the Israeli authorities that the consequences of the unrelenting ecocidal destruction of Gaza were eventually going to hit Israel. The toxic leftovers of war, including untreated sewage and contaminated rubble, are now a growing challenge for Israeli public health.

Because Gaza shares the Mediterranean, coastal ecosystems, and coastal aquifers with Israel, the destruction of its electric power and sanitation infrastructure forces over 100,000 cubic metres of raw, untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea or onto land every day. Since coastal currents move primarily from south to north, this waste is carried straight up the coast into Israeli waters. Consequently, the Ashkelon desalination plant in southern Israel has been forced to shut down multiple times due to high faecal bacteria contamination from Gaza's wastewater.

Raw sewage also triggers toxic algae blooms that block and damage desalination filtration systems, while creating dead zones where fishing would normally happen. Wastewater toxins, heavy metals, and pathogens are absorbed by local marine life. Because fish migrate across maritime boundaries, contaminated seafood poses a direct health hazard to Palestinian as well as Israeli consumers. Furthermore, contaminated groundwater can affect the shared aquifer and surrounding environment, where salts and other chemical contaminants travel much farther to reduce the quality and usability of the aquifer over time for irrigation, agriculture, and drinking.

In addition to wastewater, Israel has recently begun moving some of the estimated 60 million tonnes of rubble from Gaza into undisclosed locations inside Israel and the West Bank, potentially transferring pollutants directly to disposal or storage sites. In recent weeks, Euro-Med Monitor tracked some 100 Israeli trucks daily leaving the Gaza Strip with debris. Transferred pollutants may include heavy metals, white phosphorus particulates, unspent explosives, industrial chemicals, and widespread asbestos fibres from pulverised older buildings.

International agencies such as the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and regional environmental authorities like the Gaza Debris Management Working Group (DMWG) stipulate that managing highly contaminated disaster debris must follow strict protocols to isolate hazards. Critics have pointed out that disregarding international rules and regulations puts the health of people around collection and disposal sites at risk, while ignoring broader environmental interdependencies long highlighted by groups like EcoPeace and figures such as former Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek.