Lebanon accuses Israel of ecocide at COP28

Lebanon accused Israel of using luminous and phosphorous incendiary bombs, through which it deliberately burns green spaces, including forests, agricultural land, and perennial olive trees.

This matter imposed itself on Lebanon’s agenda at Dubai’s COP28, as caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said: “we cannot talk about climate change, reducing emissions, and adaptation when we have an occupying army that is destroying huge areas of the Lebanese environment.”

In 2022, fires destroyed 370 hectares of the entire area of Lebanon, but this year, clashes between Hezbollah and Israel led to the burning of more than 500 hectares in one region of the country, which is the south.

Lebanon bases its charge mainly on the Lebanese army’s reports and on satellite images of the areas that are being examined at the Council of Ministers’ National Centre for Scientific Research.

The images reveal how bad the fires are in each area, ranging from low to medium and medium to high, indicating the kind of areas that burned and how the fire map is spread out.

“What we observed shows an intention to systematically destroy the environment, especially through the use of phosphorous bombs, the way they are distributed, and how they affect the crops around them.” said Shadi Abdullah, director of the Remote Sensing Centre at the National Research Centre.

“This environmental destruction creates a war environment to isolate this region and strip it of all life,” he added.

International organisations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also accused Israel of using white phosphorus bombs in recent conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza.

Moreover, Lebanese officials have outlined a plan to file a complaint with the UN Security Council and use all legal means to seek penalties against Israel for alleged damages.