Damage to and Destruction of the Natural Environment

Abstract

This contribution considers the significant and well-recorded environmental destruction in Gaza, following Israel’s full-scale military operations that started in October 2023. It is argued that, in the absence of ecocentric legal frameworks, war crimes law and international humanitarian law (IHL) more generally provide appropriate avenues for the protection of the environment and to close the accountability gap. In doing so, it argues that despite the lack of ecocentric crimes in the international criminal justice system, the humanitarian imperative, and anthropocentric crimes (including core international crimes like genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes) could be used as the tools to hold to account those responsible for environmental harm in the context of terraforming warfare, a concept which best describes situations of utter infrastructural and environmental destruction and topographic change with long-term, systemic consequences. The war crimes framework is analysed, and a way forward is proposed. The article argues that the humanitarian norm, foundational to IHL and war crimes law, informs both state and individual liability for the violation of primary rules, which include the protection of the natural environment in times of war.