Ecocide and resistance in Palestine

As a Palestinian scientist and ecologist deeply rooted in Palestine’s landscapes and communities, I bear witness to a catastrophic unfolding—a systematic assault on our ecosystems, livelihoods, and survival. 

This assault is not collateral damage in conflict; it is ecocide.  

'Ecocide' refers to severe, widespread, and long-term environmental destruction that undermines the ability of inhabitants to enjoy and sustain life. 

This article has been published through the Ecologist Writers' Fund. We ask readers for donations to pay some authors £250 for their work. Please make a donation now. You can learn more about the fund, and make an application, on our website. 

Famine

Although Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute recognizes wartime environmental harm as a war crime, this threshold has rarely been met or invoked in practice. 

Advocates now call for ecocide recognition as the “fifth international crime against peace,” to hold perpetrators to account in both war and peace contexts. 

In Palestine, environmental degradation is not incidental—it is intentional, protracted, and aimed at breaking the eco-sumud (ecological steadfastness) of the Palestinian people.

Since October 2023, Gaza’s environment has suffered nearly unimaginable devastation. Israel’s assault on farmland, water systems, and infrastructure is precipitating famine, environmental collapse, and displacement—acts that resonate deeply with the legal and moral dimensions of ecocide.

Work with remote sensing show that 64 to 94 per cent, depending on region, of Gaza’s tree cover was decimated just in the first 12 months.

Ecosystem

Critical infrastructure has collapsed: waste disposal, sewage systems, water treatment plants, and energy networks are nonfunctional, unleashing 100,000 cubic meters of raw sewage daily into the sea.

Debris from bombardment—estimated at up to 50 million tonnes by mid-2024—rains down toxins (asbestos, heavy metals) into soil, groundwater, and air, contaminating everything.

Agricultural destruction is systematic. Forensic Architecture confirms targeted attacks on orchards and greenhouses; in East Jabaliya, entire family farms were flattened for military access roads. 

International bodies confirm the scale of this destruction. The Permanent Mission of Palestine to the Netherlands formally declared Gaza’s ecological devastation an ecocide, noting that fewer than five per cent of agricultural lands remain cultivable. The World Bank, UN, and EU warn of multibillion-dollar environmental damage and irreversible ecosystem degradation.

War is not only human violence - it is climate violence. In the first 120 days alone, Israel’s military operation generated over 652,000 metric tonnes of CO₂e. Rebuilding Gaza’s destroyed structures will emit 60 million tonnes CO₂e, roughly equivalent to Sweden’s or Portugal’s annual emissions.

Justice

Meanwhile, Palestine’s deep vulnerability to climate change intersects tragically with ongoing destruction. We are experiencing rising heat and increased drought: this year we received less than 40 per cent of the annual average for the past 40 years.

At COP29, Palestinian voices called out the hypocrisy of global climate discussions that ignore the ecocide unfolding in Gaza, demanding collective climate justice and divestment from energy systems fueling occupation.

Beyond bombs, there is slow, structural violence—neocolonial afforestation of alien species, manipulation of water resources, spraying of agricultural toxins into Gaza, purposeful denial of food sovereignty, and uprooting of olive trees to erase cultural ties to land. 

Such acts, designed to malnourish and displace, legally intersect with definitions of genocide and ecocide. But despite relentless destruction, Palestinians continue to resist ecocide through networked ecological solidarity.

The Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PNGON), an umbrella of over twenty organisations, coordinates efforts in sustainable agriculture, water preservation, biodiversity protection, and environmental justice tied to human rights.

Accountability

Through eco-sumud, communities preserve traditional agricultural practices like Ba’li soil-water conservation, even under siege conditions.

Forensic Architecture, Al Mezan, Law for Palestine, and academic institutions document environmental harm, building dossiers for international legal accountability.

Transnational ecological solidarity is vital: groups like EcoPeace Middle East work across Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian lines on shared water and environmental peacebuilding initiatives.

The Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University (palestinenature.org) leads in research, education, conservation and community service around areas of environmental justice.

We stand at a pivotal moment: globally, ecocide is gaining legal traction as a prospective crime under international law. Palestinian ecocide must be the proving ground for accountability.

Actions Needed

1. Document, Investigate, Prosecute: Use research evidence from academic research and from Forensic Architecture, UNEP, Al Mezan, Law for Palestine, and others to trigger International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice investigations under both war-crime and emergent ecocide frameworks.
2. Green reconstruction: Rebuild with ecological justice—clean water systems, sustainable energy, habitat restoration—not climate-intensive cement and debris.
3. International solidarity: Push for fuel and arms embargoes on Israel; demand climate finance that includes reconstruction, ecosystem restoration, and justice for Palestinians.
4. Protect eco-sumud: Support community-led sustainable agriculture, seed saving, water harvesting, and biodiversity revival as acts of resistance.
5. Advance legal recognition: Advocate for ecocide as the fifth crime in the Rome Statute, so environmental genocide meets legal redress—starting with Gaza.

As Palestinians, our struggle is both existential and ecological. Ecocide is another front of the colonial violence we resist. 

But in resisting, we not only defend life on the land—we affirm our right to a future, to ecosystems that sustain culture and survival.

This article is both a testimony and a call: to radical ecologists, environmental justice activists, defenders of international law, and global solidarity networks: Stand with Palestine not just in words, but in action: against ecocide, for environmental justice, for liberation.

This Author

Mazin Qumsiyeh is the founder and director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability, Bethlehem University, Bethlehem, Palestine.

This article has been published through the Ecologist Writers' Fund. We ask readers for donations to pay some authors £250 for their work. Please make a donation now. You can learn more about the fund, and make an application, on our website.