Gaza and the Growing Momentum to Prosecute Environmental Crimes

In a recent interview with Al Jazeera Newshour, Kate Mackintosh, executive director of UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe, discussed the devastating environmental impact of armed conflict, with a focus on Israel’s attacks against Gaza’s once-thriving agricultural industry. She underscored how the destruction of Gaza's agricultural sector reflects a broader pattern of environmental damage as a strategic target in warfare.  

"The scale of destruction has been extreme in such a short time frame," Mackintosh noted. Such environmental devastation not only threatens the lives and livelihoods of local communities, causing harm to health and property, it is also disrupting local economies and has long-term implications for global ecosystems and biodiversity.  

Mackintosh and other legal experts have posited that the extensive harm to Gaza’s ecosystems and biodiversity may constitute ecocide and environmental war crimes. Although ecocide has yet to be recognized as an international crime, existing laws of war offer substantial protection for the environment in armed conflict. Under these laws, the environment is considered a civilian object, which cannot be deliberately targeted or subjected to disproportionate attacks. Such attacks are considered war crimes, under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but have yet to be prosecuted. "The threshold for prosecution is high, but more importantly, there's been a lack of imagination,” Mackintosh argued. "The environment is protected in conflict more than is widely understood. It’s time to put these laws into practice." 

However, progress is on the horizon. Earlier this year, the ICC prosecutor signalled his intention to address environmental crimes under existing frameworks. "The environment is protected in conflict more than is widely understood. It’s time to put these laws into practice."  

Existing crimes are inadequate to encompass much catastrophic environmental harm, however. In recognition of this, the small island states of Vanuatu, Samoa, and Fiji recently formally proposed adding ecocide to the ICC's Rome Statute, a groundbreaking proposal that will be discussed in the margins of the upcoming ICC Assembly of States Parties.  

Watch the full interview below.