{"id":258510,"date":"2024-04-08T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=258510"},"modified":"2024-04-02T05:09:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T04:09:00","slug":"the-age-of-extinction-ecocide-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/04\/the-age-of-extinction-ecocide-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"The Age of Extinction: \u2018Ecocide in Gaza\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Israeli tank passes wild flowers near Gaza\u2019s border. The IDF carved new roads out of farmland when it invaded. With much of Gaza\u2019s farms, greenhouses and orchards destroyed, many are asking if the population will be able to grow food any more. <\/strong>Photograph: Jack Guez\/AFP\/Getty<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Does Scale of Environmental Destruction Amount to a War Crime? <\/em>Satellite analysis revealed to the Guardian shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territory\u2019s trees razed. Alongside mounting air and water pollution, experts says Israel\u2019s onslaught on Gaza\u2019s ecosystems has made the area unlivable.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

29 Mar 2024<\/em> – I<\/span>n a dilapidated warehouse in Rafah, Soha Abu Diab is living with her three young daughters and more than 20 other family members. They have no running water, no fuel and are surrounded by running sewage and waste piling up.<\/p>\n

Like the rest of Gaza\u2019s residents, they fear the air they breathe is heavy with pollutants and that the water carries disease. Beyond the city streets lie razed orchards and olive groves, and farmland destroyed by bombs and bulldozers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis life is not life,\u201d says Abu Diab, who was displaced from Gaza City. \u201cThere is pollution everywhere \u2013 in the air, in the water we bathe in, in the water we drink, in the food we eat, in the area around us.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her family and thousands of others, the human cost of Israel\u2019s invasion of Gaza, launched after the Hamas attack on 7 October, is being compounded by an environmental crisis.<\/p>\n

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The al-Naji family break their fast during Ramadan amid the ruins of their home in Deir al-Balah. Photograph: AFP\/Getty<\/p><\/div>\n

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The full extent of the damage in Gaza has not yet been documented, but analysis of satellite imagery provided to the Guardian shows the destruction of about 38-48% of tree cover and farmland.<\/p>\n

Olive groves and farms have been reduced to packed earth; soil and groundwater have been contaminated by munitions and toxins; the sea is choked with sewage and waste; the air polluted by smoke and particulate matter.<\/p>\n

Researchers and environmental organisations say the destruction will have enormous effects on Gaza\u2019s ecosystems and biodiversity. The scale and potential long-term impact of the damage have led to calls for it to be regarded as \u201cecocide\u201d and investigated as a possible war crime.<\/p>\n

TO READ ARTICLE COMPLETE WITH GRAPHS Go to Original – theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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Join the<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span> <\/b><\/i>BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS <\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span>campaign<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span> to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/span><\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/b><\/span><\/span> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/b><\/span><\/span> BARCODE<\/b><\/span><\/span> STARTS WITH<\/b><\/span><\/span> 729<\/b><\/span><\/span>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel. <\/span>DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

29 Mar 2024 – Does Scale of Environmental Destruction Amount to a War Crime? Satellite analysis shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territory\u2019s trees razed. Alongside air and water pollution, Israel\u2019s onslaught on Gaza\u2019s ecosystems has made the area unlivable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":258512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[952,532,1854,2898,1199,87,865,1643,1029,1966,1644,88,2416,715,427,124,70,965,1025],"class_list":["post-258510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","tag-agriculture","tag-colonialism","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-ecocide","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-genocide-convention","tag-hamas","tag-hunger","tag-international-court-of-justice-icj","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-massacre","tag-palestine","tag-united-nations","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258510"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258515,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258510\/revisions\/258515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}