Report: Environmental Impact of the Conflict in Gaza: Preliminary Assessment of Environmental Impacts – UNEP

18 June 2024

This Preliminary Assessment was prepared by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in response to an official request from the State of Palestine for an assessment of the environmental impacts of the conflict in the Gaza Strip. The Preliminary Assessment provides a summary of what is known about the environmental impacts of the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, including impacts on environmental management and waste disposal systems; energy, fuel and associated infrastructure; destruction of buildings and conflict-related debris; marine and terrestrial environments; and air quality. In addition to describing known, and in many cases visible, environmental impacts, this assessment highlights conflict-related environmental issues that are of serious concern, but about which the United Nations has limited information at this stage. Conflict was ongoing in Gaza throughout preparation of this report: the security situation and access restrictions prevailing in Gaza influenced the type of analysis UNEP was able to undertake. Some conflict-related impacts – such as the likely contamination of soil and the Coastal Aquifer by chemicals and heavy metals – can only be fully understood through more detailed sampling and analysis, which should be undertaken as soon as conditions permit.

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Conclusion

This Preliminary Assessment has described an unprecedented intensity of conflict-related damage in comparison to previous conflicts in the Gaza Strip, and provided an initial analysis of its likely implications for people and their environment. The assessment also summarized long-running environmental challenges, and recent Palestinian and international efforts to protect people and ecosystems through enhancing facilities and capacities for integrated water management and solid waste. Progress recorded in some areas had been hard-won and costly, due in part to the political and security constraints prevailing in Gaza. Limited progress has been reversed and overwhelmed by the current conflict.

The UN Secretary-General (UNSG) has made repeated calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza: this is essential to halt and begin to reverse the “entirely manmade disaster” that is unfolding. At the time of writing, the UN system and its partners are focused on saving civilian lives and averting famine in Gaza, in what has become—in the Secretary-General’s words—a “humanitarian hellscape” (UNSG 2024).

At the same time, UN entities and international partners, including the World Bank Group and European Union,
have recognized in their joint Interim Damage Assessment (WB, EU and UN 2024) that “While recovery and reconstruction will require substantial, years-long effort, early recovery actions should begin as soon as the situation allows and complement scaled up humanitarian assistance.” Halting the destruction will allow the hard, work of restoring services such as wastewater treatment and solid waste collection to begin. Restoration of such services will be costly: damage already sustained in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector alone is assessed at over US$500 million (WB, EU and UN 2024).

Restoring safe living conditions for a densely-populated, water-scarce and contaminated strip of land will also require exceptionally careful planning. Incorporating environmental dimensions into such planning will be necessary from the very start. Planning to rebuild hospitals, schools and homes should incorporate analysis of potential contaminants, so that high-risk areas can be avoided; and be sensitive to possible land instability arising from destroyed tunnels. Clearance of debris also requires an understanding of the contaminants such debris contains, to ensure the clearance and disposal does not spread and further contaminate soil or water, and thus create new risks to Gaza’s inhabitants. Understanding the extent and type of pollution affecting the Coastal Aquifer will also be critically important, to ensure that people are not further exposed to dangerous chemicals and heavy metals in their water or food.

Future environmental assessment work

Joint work on environmental issues will be important during the months ahead. By incorporating environmental analysis and recommendations into national and international responses and recovery plans and operations, and by working closely with multilateral partners, UNEP can maximise prospects for addressing immediate risks (such as conflict-related pollution and contamination); guide immediate recovery efforts (for example, by providing frameworks to manage hazardous waste and promote safe disposal); support debris management planning and coordination including technical advisory support on maximizing recycling opportunities; and help to ensure that environmental and climate considerations are incorporated into recovery and development plans. This brings benefits for affected populations and for those impacted by transboundary environmental consequences of the conflict.

Two types of assessment work are envisaged: first, incorporation of environmental issues fully into the envisaged multilateral Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA) process; and second, field-based assessment of priority environmental issues to be undertaken by qualified specialists, whenever conditions permit. These two expected assessment processes are briefly summarized below.

Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment

The UN, World Bank and European Union are planning to undertake a RDNA in Gaza, based on a globally established methodology and building on information, data and analysis from such entities and other reliable sources of information.

A ceasefire, as called for by the UN Secretary-General, would allow international entities to conduct a full RDNA. An interim assessment for Gaza may be initiated in the absence of a cessation of hostilities. UNEP has been asked to lead the environmental assessment aspect of the RDNA, a task it will undertake in close co-operation and partnership with other UN entities – including the UN partners which maintain a field presence in the Gaza Strip.

The RDNA process is designed to provide an early, rapid assessment of damages and needs, to inform early planning for recovery. The 2021 Gaza RDNA, which was conducted by the World Bank Group in partnership with the European Union and the United Nations, specifies that to “mitigate the limitations in data collection, the team relied on the use of remote data tools such as high-resolution satellite imagery and social media monitoring as well as the information and guidance provided by UN and humanitarian agencies on the ground in Gaza. This is a ‘live’ document and will be updated as new information becomes available. The assessment … is not a replacement of in-depth sector-specific assessments.” (World Bank 2021)

The same provisions are likely to apply to the forthcoming joint RDNA, which will be undertaken at speed and will provide an important basis for further, more granular sector-specific assessment work. At present, UNEP anticipates undertaking a full environmental assessment after the completion of the RDNA and building on its findings.

Planning for a field-based environmental assessment

Whenever security conditions allow and access is granted, UNEP will seek to undertake a field-based process that would enable more accurate assessment of the extent and type of environmental degradation, and permit identification of remediation options in consultation with relevant stakeholders, including the scientific research community, public and private sector professionals, civil society, women and youth. Such a field-based assessment would allow UNEP and partners to understand the full extent of environmental damage arising from the conflict, including land, water and air pollution; damage to the aquifer; and contamination from munitions (and the immediate and long term impacts of such contamination). Such an assessment would also provide the basis for science-based recommendations about how to clean-up, restore and protect Gaza’s environment and its people as early recovery from the conflict begins, over the short, medium and long term.

Some aspects of environmental degradation arising from the conflict in Gaza will require specialized analysis and action. Understanding the type, locations and extent of contamination from munitions will be necessary, as a first step towards protecting people (and the food and water systems on which they depend) from such contamination. Understanding whether the construction, flooding and destruction of tunnels has caused severe damage to the environment, including the aquifer and possible instability of soil, will also be important and should be undertaken alongside planning for reconstruction.

As noted above, UNEP is mandated by Member States to serve as an authoritative advocate for the global environment, to monitor environmental status and risks, and to “lead efforts to formulate United Nations system-wide strategies on the environment.” At the sixth United Nations Environment Assembly, which took place as the conflict in Gaza was ongoing, Member States asked the UNEP Executive Director to report on “new and emerging practices, on the collection of data on environmental damage associated with armed conflicts” and to “strengthen the United Nations Environment Programme’s collaboration with other UN Agencies and relevant stakeholders to provide, upon requests of Member States of the United Nations or members of UN specialised agencies, environmental assistance and recovery in areas affected by armed conflicts.”

Given high uncertainty relating to the governance and security arrangements in Gaza, and noting the importance of early identification and remediation of environmental risks (including contamination), it may be necessary to use innovative methods—“new and emerging practices”—to investigate such environmental risks. Work with UN partners in the field will continue to be critically important: UNEP will continue to support the UN Country Team’s efforts on environment, and to engage in inter-agency efforts to coordinate a system-wide approach and promote a science-informed response to address the environmental impacts of the conflict.

Finally, it is relevant to note that Gaza hosts important higher education institutions, laboratories and civil societies institutions, which hold important knowledge about Gaza’s environment. Drawing on such knowledge will be important as steps begin towards recovery of Gaza’s natural resources and ecosystems.