155 Environmental Violations Committed by the Occupation and Settlers During the Second Quarter of 2025

SadaNews - The Palestinian Authority for Environmental Quality documented in its second quarterly report for the year 2025 that the Israeli occupation and its settlers committed a total of 155 violations against the Palestinian environment during the period from April to June of this year, across various northern governorates. In its report issued today, Wednesday, it stated that the violations were distributed across several axes, most notably the destruction of water wells, attacks on distribution and sewage networks, the leveling of agricultural lands, the smuggling of hazardous waste, assaults on livestock and natural resources, in addition to the establishment of colonial outposts and the confiscation of grazing and agricultural lands. The report indicated that during the second quarter of the current year, the occupation and its settlers destroyed 15 water wells in the governorates of Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, Salfit, and Tubas, causing significant damage to groundwater sources and contributing to the acceleration of desertification and deterioration of biodiversity. The Environmental Quality Authority also recorded 13 assaults on water networks, including the sabotage of transfer lines in the areas of Nablus, Salfit, Qalqilya, and Jericho, and 6 assaults on sewage networks, including cases of direct leakage of wastewater to agricultural lands in Qalqilya, Salfit, and Jerusalem, posing a health hazard and a serious threat to the environment and public health. According to the report, the Environmental Quality Authority documented 35 cases of complete or partial destruction of agricultural lands, and 45 assaults on trees and vegetation, which included the deliberate uprooting of olive, grape, and citrus trees, in addition to systematic burning and leveling operations targeting citizens' crops. In a related context, the report referred to 16 assaults targeting livestock, represented in the theft of sheep, the demolition of barns, preventing herders from accessing pastures, and releasing livestock onto citizens' lands to damage crops, which signals a threat to the ecological balance in rural and pastoral areas. The report also included documentation of 15 instances of waste and debris accumulation resulting from demolition operations carried out by the occupation forces in Jerusalem, Salfit, Qalqilya, and Ramallah, and the smuggling of industrial waste from inside the 48 territories to open Palestinian areas, including construction waste, damaged tires, and factory waste, posing a direct danger to human health and wildlife. The report addressed 10 additional varied violations committed by the occupation forces and their settlers, including storming archaeological and natural sites, sabotaging electricity networks, closing entrances to populated areas, pouring oil waste on the roads, and assaulting public and private properties in various areas of Bethlehem, Jericho, Hebron, Salfit, Ramallah, and Nablus, as part of a systematic policy aimed at emptying the land of its inhabitants. The Environmental Quality Authority showed that the recorded violations extended to include population centers and infrastructure, including electricity networks, health facilities, public parks, archaeological and natural sites, confirming that these violations come as part of a systematic policy targeting the Palestinian environment and its resources, falling under the framework of environmental crimes. The report emphasized that some of these acts are classified as crimes against humanity, while others are considered environmental crimes within the framework of war crimes, according to what is stipulated in Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, particularly concerning the widespread destruction of infrastructure and the forced displacement of populations, as occurred in the Jenin and Tulkarem camps.