Ramallah - Saba:
The Environmental Quality Authority announced that the Israeli enemy and its settlers committed a total of 155 violations against the Palestinian environment between April and June of this year in various northern governorates.
In its second quarterly report for 2025, issued today, Wednesday, the authority stated that the violations were distributed across several axes, most notably the destruction of water wells, attacks on distribution and sewage networks, bulldozing of agricultural land, smuggling of hazardous waste, attacks on livestock and natural resources, in addition to the establishment of colonial outposts and the seizure of pastoral and agricultural lands.
The report indicated that during the second quarter of this year, the enemy and settlers destroyed 15 water wells in the governorates of Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, Salfit, and Tubas, causing severe damage to groundwater resources and contributing to the acceleration of desertification and the deterioration of biodiversity.
The Environmental Quality Authority also recorded 13 attacks on water networks, including the sabotage of transmission lines in the areas of Nablus, Salfit, Qalqilia, and Jericho, and six attacks on sewage networks, including cases of direct leakage of wastewater into agricultural lands in Qalqilia, Salfit, and Quds.According to the report, the Environmental Quality Department documented 35 cases of total or partial destruction of agricultural land and 45 attacks on trees and vegetation, including the deliberate uprooting of olive, grape, and citrus trees, in addition to systematic burning and bulldozing of citizens' crops.
The report also noted 16 attacks targeting livestock, including sheep theft, the demolition of pens, the prevention of shepherds from accessing pastures, and the release of livestock onto citizens' land to destroy crops. This threatens the ecological balance in rural and pastoral areas.
The report also documented 15 cases of waste and rubble accumulation resulting from demolitions carried out by the occupation forces in Quds, Salfit, Qalqilia, and Ramallah, as well as the smuggling of industrial waste from occupied Palestine into open Palestinian areas. This includes construction waste, damaged tires, and factory waste, posing a direct threat to human health and wildlife.
It addressed ten additional, diverse violations committed by enemy forces and settlers, including storming archaeological and natural sites, sabotaging electricity networks, closing entrances to residential areas, pouring oil waste on roads, and attacking public and private property 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 indicated that the recorded attacks extended to include residential areas and infrastructure, including electricity networks, health facilities, public parks, and archaeological and natural sites, stressing that these violations are part of a systematic policy targeting the Palestinian environment and its resources and fall within the framework of environmental crimes.
The report confirmed that some of these acts are classified as crimes against humanity, while others constitute environmental crimes within the framework of war crimes, as stipulated in Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.