UNEP found over 97% of Gaza’s tree crops damaged by May 2025
ANTALYA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the U.N. climate summit on Wednesday that “what has taken place in Gaza is not only a genocide, but it is also an ecocide,” and he asked the Israeli government to grant more aid access to the Palestinian territory.
Erdogan spoke to applause from world leaders and other climate envoys at the summit, known as COP31, in Antalya. World leaders began formal talks there this week, seeking agreement on concrete steps to curb global warming after a year of deadly floods, heat waves and other climate-related disasters. More than 70 world leaders and senior government officials are speaking at the summit, though some key leaders are absent, including the heads of state from the United States, China and India. Israel was not invited.
“Centuries old olive trees have been cut down. The soil and water have been polluted in Gaza, and cities in Gaza have been turned into enormous piles of rubble,” Erdogan said. “With Gaza’s destroyed infrastructure, compounded by torrential rain and by flooding, tens of thousands of tents and shelters have been inundated.”
His speech came days after heavy rainfall and flooding destroyed many of the tents and makeshift shelters that Palestinian residents of Gaza now live in. At least four people were killed earlier this week when a sand embankment collapsed on their shelter, and the rain left many displaced people without food, drinking water or a dry place to sleep.
A U.N.-backed panel of independent experts concluded last year that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel vehemently denies the allegations and has accused the panel of antisemitism.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Erdogan’s remarks. Erdogan has been an outspoken critic of Israel, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called Erdogan an antisemitic “tyrant.” “The latest country to become a superspreader of antisemitic lies is Turkey,” Netanyahu said in September while speaking at the U.N. General Assembly.
Humanitarian aid enters the territory, but imports remain far below levels recorded before the war began, and many items remain blocked by Israel.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza following the attacks by Hamas-led militants in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The militants killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 74,000 people, according to local health authorities, and destroyed much of Gaza. The Health Ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up nearly half of the dead.
A 2025 report by the U.N. Environment Program outlined the state of Gaza’s environment since the war began. Remote sensing assessments showed that by May 2025, more than 97% of tree crops, 82% of annual crops, 95% of shrubland and 89% of grass and fallow land had been damaged, according to the report. The conflict has “all but eliminated” Gaza’s fishing livelihoods, the report said, with marine ecosystems contaminated by munitions, sewage and solid waste.
“As of now, our families only have 3% of cropland to use, and that is assuming it’s distributed across 2 million Palestinians” in the Gaza Strip, said Mohammed Usrof, co-founder and executive director of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy. “Not talking about these losses undermines Palestinians’ food supply, livelihoods and ability to remain on their land,” Usrof said.
Gaza’s ability to dispose of garbage, treat sewage and deliver clean water has been virtually decimated by three years of war. The collapse has made already grim living conditions worse and raised health risks for hundreds of thousands of people deprived of adequate shelter, food and medicine, aid groups say.
Ghiwa Nakat, executive director at Greenpeace MENA, told The Associated Press that for people in Gaza the damage means “severely limited access to safe drinking water, greater exposure to waterborne diseases and toxic substances, deepening food insecurity and the loss of livelihoods dependent on agriculture and fishing.” She warned that Gaza’s environment could take years to recover.
“The environmental damage will not end when the war ends,” Nakat said. “Contaminated soil and groundwater, destroyed ecosystems and the collapse of essential environmental infrastructure could undermine public health, food security and livelihoods for generations, threatening communities’ resilience and their ability to recover.”
Victoria Milko reported from Islamabad.
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