Zoe Kenny
Israel's US-backed military campaign against the Gaza Strip and Lebanon is not only directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians and displacement of hundreds of thousands of others. There are increasing signs of the onset of immediate humanitarian and longer-term environmental crises.
Israel has carried out the collective punishment of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, deliberately targeting essential infrastructure — a breach of the Geneva Conventions. The June 28 bombing of the Gaza Strip's only power plant has condemned Palestinians to an inhuman level of suffering.
A July 8 statement by UN agencies working in the Gaza Strip noted that the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza are "without electricity for between 12 and 18 hours every day". This has disrupted water supply and impacted on the sewerage system.
A July 3 statement by Friends of the Earth Palestine detailed the health and environmental toll that the breakdown of basic amenities has resulted in, including contamination of drinking water and untreated sewage being discharged onto the streets, threatening Palestinians with infectious diseases. Groundwater and agricultural lands have been polluted, and the pollution of the sea has resulted in the migration of fish away from usual fishing areas.
According to the World Health Organisation, hospitals and health-care centres in the Gaza Strip are now relying on generators, which are running out of fuel. Hospitals are running out of essential medicines at the same time as there is a 160% increase in diarrhea cases compared to the same time last year. Food production has also been disrupted as a result of the energy crisis — prior to the military campaign 70% of people in the Gaza Strip were already dependant on food aid.
Israel's state terror does not stop there. On July 4 Reuters reported that Israeli and Palestinian human rights group had filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Israel to ban the use of sonic booms over the Gaza Strip by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), claiming it is a form of psychological torture that particularly affects children.
Sonic booms have been blamed for an increase in bed-wetting among children. Ahmad Abu Tawhina, deputy director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, said: "The booms are so loud, so unpredictable, so uncontrollable, and totally unavoidable. It is overwhelming and many cannot deal with it."
Israel has repeated its Gaza performance in Lebanon, beginning with the July 14 bombing of the Beirut international airport and the systematic bombing of roads, bridges and residential areas.
The bombing in Lebanon has resulted in the displacement of an estimated 1 million people, who are now living in makeshift shelters such as schools, churches or parks, and are reliant upon aid. Those trapped in southern Lebanon have experienced the worst privation, as the bombing campaign and ground invasion have made it almost impossible for aid-providers to reach those in need.
One of the most horrific aspects of Israel's brutal campaign against the Lebanese people has been its use of depleted uranium munitions (DU). A July 24 article on Uruknet.info by Doug Rokke, former director of the Pentagon's DU program, alleged that the US has provided the IDF with 100 GBU 28 bunker-buster bombs, which have DU warheads.
The use of DU weapons by the US in the 1991 Gulf War on Iraq had disastrous consequences for the Iraqi people, particularly children. DU munitions were blamed for massive increases in birth defects and incidence of cancer. Exposure to DU is often linked to "Gulf War Syndrome" suffered by US military personnel who served in the 1991 war.
Rokke told PrisonPlanet.com's Alan Jones Show that DU will impact on the whole region: "We've got all the Lebanese being affected, all the women and children being affected, all the Israelis being affected, and the areas over there are so small you're going to have the whole region effected and contaminated."
The July 29 New York Times reported that the IDF bombing of an oil storage depot in the town of Jiyeh has led to a massive oil spill. The spill is Lebanon's worst-ever environmental disaster, and is on a scale comparable to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. It is estimated that 10,000 tonnes of oil have flooded into the Mediterranean. The Lebanese environment ministry estimates that cleaning up the spill will cost upwards of US$200 million.