Abstract/Summary

In March 2024, Forensic Architecture reported that more than 2,000 agricultural sites, including farms and greenhouses, have been destroyed in Gaza since October 2023. Almost six months into Israel’s war on Gaza, evidence indicates the devastating impacts of the war on the natural environment in Gaza. In particular, it has been reported that farms have been devastated, and nearly half of the trees in Gaza were razed. While this raises numerous issues, the question of whether Israel’s large-scale airstrikes on Gaza would make a substantial contribution to serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) protecting the natural environment during armed conflicts, deserves more thought than it gets. In this post, I will discuss the legal implications of Israel’s military operations for establishing its fault and wrongdoing in relation to the environmental destruction going on in Gaza. I wish to bring into the analysis an issue of central importance that legally proportionate but unnecessary damage to the natural environment must be discerned in the context of basic considerations of humanity.