War and Garbage in Gaza: The Health and Environmental Crisis Caused by Widespread Solid Waste Pollution – Occupied Palestinian Territory

The war-torn Gaza Strip faces serious health risks due to the growing garbage crisis

Throughout the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of tons of solid waste are piling up on the streets, between tents in refugee camps, and next to the rubble in back alleys. The collapse of waste management since October 7, 2023 is exacerbating the health crisis.

Palestinians already suffer from malnutrition, a broken health system, and daily exposure to disease and pollution. PAX is releasing a new report titled “War and Garbage in Gaza,” which uses satellite imagery and open source intelligence (OSINT) to visualize how Gaza is drowning in conflict garbage after months of fighting. The findings include over 225 garbage dumps throughout the Gaza Strip, from massive garbage piles several hundred meters long to small garbage dumps that have become breeding grounds for disease and environmental hotspots. This simmering garbage crisis comes on top of the many other conflict-related environmental problems facing Gaza, as outlined in the previous PAX scoping report, Uninhabitable, released in December 2023.

“The suffering of the people of Gaza is compounded by the deteriorating environmental conditions they face on a daily basis,” says Wim Zwijnenburg, Project Manager for Humanitarian Disarmament and one of the authors of this report. “Surrounded by rotting garbage, burning plastic and fear of bomb attacks, the situation is getting worse by the day. It is urgent that the international community provide support to humanitarian organizations in tackling these problems.”

War-related garbage crisis of enormous proportions

This research involved combing through thousands of photos and videos from traditional and social media sources, as well as many gigabytes of satellite imagery collected by planet. The combination of perspectives helped document the enormous scale of the war-related garbage crisis and assess its potential health and environmental impacts. Garbage is found dangerously close to or even inside overcrowded refugee camps, further exacerbating risks to their already fragile health. Elsewhere, garbage piles are found on the coast, slowly polluting the marine environment or affecting agricultural land and water sources. Gaza’s garbage disposal system, already limited before the war, has now completely collapsed, with collection vehicles destroyed and the Israeli military denying access to official garbage dumps.

“With the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, waste management may not be the first issue that springs to mind. But it should be,” explains Marlina Zigka of Princeton University and co-author of the report. “By combining ground-based data with satellite imagery, we wanted to demonstrate the utility of open-source documentation and Earth observations to reveal the apocalyptic scale of this little-noticed yet existential threat.”

Serious health consequences

The evidence PAX has gained from work on previous conflicts and broader studies of landfills points to the serious health consequences of unchecked waste disposal. Garbage attracts rodents and insects, leading to the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera or skin diseases, while burning garbage, a disposal method locals are using to deal with the current emergency, worsens air pollution, which in turn can lead to further respiratory problems. People, including many children, scavenging through garbage for food and sustenance face additional risks from hazardous substances, including medical waste and industrial chemicals. There is also growing evidence that conflict pollution is at risk from the spread of antibiotic resistance, a development that may exacerbate the medical health crisis. Large landfills also pose a threat to soil and groundwater as leachate, a toxic mixture that emanates from the garbage, seeps into the soil and affects groundwater, while in the long term, increased methane release from landfills contributes to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Humanitarian organizations and local volunteer committees have already launched ad hoc cleanup operations to move the garbage to less hazardous locations. Nevertheless, solid waste remains a long-term environmental and health problem that will haunt Gaza for a long time to come.

The UN warns of a “silent threat” from garbage that is affecting life-saving humanitarian aid. The effective use of Earth observation and OSINT is key to bringing these hidden risks to the forefront to support humanitarian aid efforts and ensure these issues are addressed in the post-conflict phase.

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