French Green Party leader Marine Tondelier has claimed an “ecocide” was taking place in Gaza.
On June 17, at a press conference calling for the recognition of the Palestinian State, she said: “What I wanted to say is that yes, a genocide is underway, we must say it, denounce it, and stop it, but there is also an ecocide happening, and that is being talked about far too little.”
According to Tondelier, normal life was no longer viable in the Palestinian region.
“The destruction of nature and ecosystems in Gaza is, in the medium term, making life technically impossible there. This is what happens when human life is threatened through environmental destruction.
“In Gaza, aquifers are contaminated, farmland has been rendered sterile due to bombings, the sea is polluted, ancient olive trees have been uprooted, and wildlife has been decimated. Water, air, and soil are becoming hostile to life,” she added.
Environmental NGO Greenpeace also raised the alarm last year, describing Gaza as “uninhabitable for generations to come”.
In a July 2024 statement, Greenpeace Middle East campaigner Farah Al Hattab estimated that the war had emitted more than 536,000 tonnes of CO₂ in its first 120 days, 90 per cent of which was attributable to Israeli military action.
The figure, he noted, exceeded the annual carbon footprint of several climate-vulnerable nations.
Tondelier called for the suspension of the European Union-Israel Association Agreement and demanded a ban on imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Socialist leader, Olivier Faure, Communist leader Fabien Roussel and NGOs including the League for the Protection of Human Rights, SOS Racism and the French Lawyers’ Union were also present during the June 17 press conference.
Left-wing parties argued that recognising the State of Palestine was long overdue and should be seen as the beginning of a political solution to the conflict.
On June 15, radical left MEP Rima Hassan went further, rejecting the two-State solution altogether and calling instead for the creation of a “binational state” shared by Israelis and Palestinians.
