In response to a call for input, Al-Haq has made a submission to the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights, on for the forthcoming thematic report on military activities and toxics, highlighting the impact of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza on the environment.

Israel’s repeated military aggressions and intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip since 2008 has not only poisoned the soil and groundwater, but has also caused a heightened rate of birth defects among children. The crippling blockade and siege prevents access to heavy machinery to clear rubble, essential equipment for drilling, and tools for water purification through the imposition of a restrictive “dual-use” policy. Due to the inability of Palestinians to be able to effectively clear the rubble and rebuild, many families are forced to live alongside the rubble and in partially destroyed or damaged homes, leaving them at risk of prolonged exposure to pulverized building materials (PBMs) and heavy metal exposure from concrete rubble. Long-term exposure to dust particulates poses serious health risks, including cancer.  A UNEP assessment in 2009 found rubble was contaminated with hazardous waste, in particular, asbestos. In 2018-2019, the only environmental associations found for birth defects and preterm deliveries in Gaza was exposure of the mother to military attacks, confirming the long-term effects these have on reproductive health. Indeed, evidence shows that contamination in utero of newborns was associated with their mother’s exposure to attacks that had occurred two years earlier.

Israel’s unprecedented bombing of the Gaza Strip is not only killing Palestinians, but the environment as well. According to the UN, Israel’s bombing and deliberate destruction of Gaza has produced 14 times more rubble than all other military aggressions on Gaza combined since 2008. Conflict debris contains unexploded ordinance and unexploded bombs (UXOs) and human remains, released in an uncontrolled manner impacting a wide area. It is estimated that Israel’s decimation of buildings and infrastructure in Gaza since October 2023 has produced more than 39 million tonnes of rubble, which contains hazardous materials, including household chemicals, pharmaceuticals, disinfectants, laboratory chemicals, and pesticides. It is estimated that it will take five years and around USD $647-513 million to clear the debris from key infrastructure and roads networks.  Removal and disposal of all debris may take up to 15 years assuming the availability of a reasonable level of heavy machinery, which as stated before, is unavailable in Gaza due to the restrictive dual use list. Most alarmingly, UNEP’s 2024 analysis estimated at least 800,000 tons of debris in Gaza may be contaminated with asbestos. Thus, Palestinians are potentially exposed to severe long-term health consequences as a result of Israel’s mass destruction of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has deployed white phosphorus against the Palestinian population in Gaza in violation of international law. White phosphorus ignites upon contact with oxygen, producing a dense white smoke that can reach up to 800 degrees Celsius. While white phosphorus is not outlawed as a chemical weapon on its own, its use is strictly prohibited in densely populated areas under the international legal principles of distinction, necessity, and proportionality, as the incendiary weapon which burns through human skin and bone causes extensive human suffering and risk to civilians. Israel has repeatedly deployed white phosphorus in Gaza and Lebanon in densely populated urban areas. Several doctors operating in Gaza since October 2023 have reported observing and treating patients with weapons-inflicted injuries they had never seen before. Dr. Nabeel al-Shawa, a consultant orthopedic surgeon who has worked in Gaza since 1978, stated that the “new rounds the Israeli army used caused injuries I have never seen before. In some cases the limb appeared intact, however, during surgery, I could not distinguish between bone and soft tissue.”

Nevertheless, States continue to deal in arms trade with Israel, despite the purchase and sale of weapons to and from Israel being in violation of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which prohibits the sale of weapons at risk of being used in genocide and crimes against humanity. While Israel is not a member of the ATT, 116 States are parties to the treaty, including the UK, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, which continue to engage in trade or production of weapons and weapons parts for use by the Israeli military in violation of the ATT and the obligation to prevent the crime of genocide.

Recommendations to the UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights:

• The duty to prevent genocide rests upon the entire international community. Environmental and toxic remediation cannot take place under constant killing, bombardment, and blockade, unlawful occupation, apartheid and genocide.
  • The Special Rapporteur should raise attention to the specific role of military activities and toxics in this genocide and must call on States and corporations to cease aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide and illegal occupation and apartheid.
  • Third States must take tangible and specific action to put an end to Israel’s genocide, dismantle Israel’s settler colonial apartheid regime, end the illegal occupation, and blockade, including taking action to remediate the toxic impact of Israel’s illegal actions, supplying clean water and sanitation supplies and infrastructure among other essential humanitarian aid, and conduct studies on the extent of environmental harm to the Palestinian people and land caused by Israel. 
  • The Special Rapporteur and international community must call on Israel to provide reparations for the human and environmental harms.
• Israel’s abuse of white phosphorus highlights weaknesses of Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons and problematic international armament practices.
  • The Special Rapporteur and international community should call for amending Protocol III of the Convention to prohibit munitions with incendiary effects altogether, including white phosphorus.
  • Given Israel’s record of repeatedly using white phosphorus in densely populated areas with impunity and in clear violation of the distinction, necessity, and proportionality principles of IHL.
  • The three main corporations that supply white phosphorus should be sanctioned and prevented from producing and selling the weapon, especially to Israel and States which commit grave violations in its use. The three corporations are: Israel Chemical Limited (ICL), Monsanto (Bayer), and Pine Bluff Arsenal.
• Given the potential toxic remnants from unexploded ordnance in Gaza, and the buildup of such in the Gaza Strip, causing irreparable harm to the Palestinian people and environment, the Special Rapporteur should recommend:
  • That Israel end its military hostilities in Gaza with immediate effect and call for a full and immediate withdrawal of Israel from the occupied Palestinian territory, ensuring the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people
• The unprecedented scale of environmental damage in Gaza reveals the inadequacy of environmental protections in international criminal law. For atrocities of this magnitude, a new international crime must be outlined: the crime of ecocide.
  • The Special Rapporteur should call on and support the international community in adding the crime of ecocide into the Rome Statute.
  • Call on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to include crimes committed by Israeli political and military leaders in destroying the environment in Palestine, to prevent the survival of the Palestinian people, as an act of genocide.

Please find full submission here.