Testimony for the Gaza Tribunal

The extent of the ecocide that is accompanying the last two years of genocide in the Gaza Strip

I am Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, professor, founder, and director of the Palestine Instute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University. I have over 40 years of experience in working on environmental issues globally and have published over 250 scientific papers, over 30 book chapters, and several books. I also led national environmental efforts and served as a consulting scientist in global and regional environmental work. I provide this testimony to the jurors so that they can reach judgements based on facts regarding an aspect usually ignored in times of conflict: the ecocide. The facts listed below in this brief are very well documented and I provide refences from peer reviewed scientific work at the end that validate the statements made herein.

Let me begin by stating that the environmental costs of the colonial occupation and conflict on the land and people Palestine started nearly a hundred years ago with projects like draining the wetland of the Hula, diversion of waters of the Jordan River basin (the river used to flow at 1350 million cubic meters/year and now barely a stream at 20 mcm/y), and uprooting of millions of local trees. The previous damage also included bringing in dozens of invasive plant and animal species and planting a monoculture of pine trees to replace more resilient mixed wooded areas destroyed. This catastrophic environmental damage (which I dubbed an “environmental nakba”) has accelerated since 7 October 2023. Brief key areas of damage

-  Climate change impact due to incessant bombing campaigns that produced more greenhouse gases than most average countries produce from all other sources of greenhouse gas emissions

-  Israeli occupation forces (IOF) intentionally destroyed most trees and most greenhouses in the Gaza strip

- IOF destroyed habitats for most of the species in Gaza that are listed in the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

-  IOF extensively used environmentally destructive weapons such as white phosphorous and munitions  containing radioactive material.

- IOF destroyed essentially all institutions of higher education and research in the Gaza strip destroying possibilities of work on remedies/remediation or conservation

- IOF destroyed most of the hospitals and rendered other poorly operational. This combined with a blockade on food, medicine, fuel and water entering the Gaza Strip resulted in a huge environmental health catastrophe (famine, diseases spreading etc)

-  The denial of fuel and the relentless bombing decimated infrastructure like desalination plans and sewage treatment facilities resulting in cataclysmic conditions not just for humans but for fauna and flora of the Gaza strip

Resources/documentation

Abuawad, Ahlam and Griffiths, Mark and Edwards, Graham and Eftekhari, Adan and El-Ebweini, Mohammed and Al-Najar, Husam and Butmeh, Abeer and Abu Dayyeh, Rasha and Al-Shewy, Mohamed and Aker, Amira, From Ecocide to Genocide: A Call to Action for Scientists Globally to Address the Destruction in Gaza (November 04, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5021472 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5021472

Busby, Christopher, Robert L Gallagher, Yvon Anwar Saouiby, Jihad Abboud (2025) Anomalous Lead and Cadmium isotope ratios in dust samples taken near the site of the Israeli bombing in Beirut, Lebanon on Sept 27, 2024 provide evidence of neutron exposures. https://drive.proton.me/urls/NPC3NS64MM#wpnnuln19Ovs

Husein, D., & Qumsiyeh, M. B. (2022). Impact of Israeli segregation and annexation wall on Palestinian biodiversity. Africana Studia, 37, 19-26. https://www.palestinenature.org/research/160.-Husein---Qumsiyeh.pdf

Qumsiyeh, M. B. (Lead author). (2022). 6th National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity. https://chm.cbd.int/database/record?documentID=257520 PDF https://www.cbd.int/doc/nr/nr-06/ps-nr-06-en.pdf

Qumsiyeh, M. B. (2023). Environmental justice in Palestine: Rights of natives to their environment versus colonial onslaught. Security in Context.  

Qumsiyeh, M. B. (2024). Impact of Israeli military activities on the environment. International Journal of Environmental Studies, 81(2), 977-992. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207233.2024.2323365

Qumsiyeh, MB (2025) Ecocide and Resistance in Palestine. The Ecologist 2 Sept. 2025 https://theecologist.org/2025/sep/02/ecocide-and-resistance-palestine

Qumsiyeh, M. B., & Ali, R. (2024). Scholasticide: The ongoing colonial attack on Palestinian higher education. Science for the People, 26(3), 20-22, 46-47.

Qumsiyeh, M. B., & Soderberg, J. (2025). Colonialism and its effect on rights of people with disabilities (PWD): Case study from Palestine. International Journal of Disability and Social Studies. In press.

Ward, Michelle, James Watson, Jamon Van den Hoek, David Mills, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Hugh Possingham, He Yin 2025. War in Gaza severely impacts threatened species habitat. Science (Submitted)

Yin, H., Eklund, L., Habash, D., Qumsiyeh, M. B., & Van Den Hoek, J. (2025). Evaluating war-induced damage to agricultural land in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 using PlanetScope and SkySat imagery. Science of Remote Sensing. Vol. 11: Article 100199

Water apartheid': How Israel weaponises water in the Gaza Strip | Middle East Eye: Article by Nancy Murray (Middle East Eye) https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/how-israel-weaponises-water-gaza-strip

Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change

Climate Justice, Imperialism and Palestine: Unpacking Global Systems of Oppression
https://worldbeyondwar.org/climate-justice-imperialism-and-palestine-unpacking-global-systems-of-oppression/

The Decimation of Gaza's Health Care System—Hospitals Destroyed and Lives Endangered

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/27551938251378096

What to do with Debris in Gaza (report with interview of me)
https://x.com/anadoluagency/status/1905961839529201723