The Israeli occupation of Palestine is "destroying nature", Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said at the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt on Tuesday.
"The situation in Palestine is an exception because its suffering is doubled," he said.
"On one hand, there is an Israeli colonial military occupation that is destructive to humans and the environment and, on the other hand, it is affected by climate change, like the rest of the world.
"The Israeli occupation, through the settlements, is destroying nature, stealing resources, burying its solid and dangerous waste in our land, stealing our water and uprooting our trees."
Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade for 15 years, has been described as a huge open-air prison. It is one of the world's most densely populated areas.
“Gaza suffers from reduced rainfall, annual seawater level rises and more extreme heat events already as a result of climate change,” Amira Aker, a postdoctoral fellow at Canada’s Universite Laval, previously told The National.
“Hundreds of years ago, Gaza was considered an oasis due to the abundance of water it had.
Today, Gaza's underground water sources are overused and its sea is contaminated with sewage waste, which seeps into the freshwater supplies, the scientist said.
In May, an 11-day war with Israel resulted in the destruction of sewage and water purification plants that supplying drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people.
“Israel’s uprooting of trees along its border with Gaza, causes the soil to lose organic material and carry less roots with which to hold on to water, contributing to desertification," Ms Aker said.
More than 2.5 million trees have been uprooted since Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Mr Shtayyeh told the audience at Cop27. The financial impact is also dire, he said.
"The Israeli occupation, with its entire colonial system, extracts $41 billion from our national capabilities annually, in addition to the depletion of our water resources, as we have a water deficit of up to 135 million cubic metres annually, and the Palestinian consumes a third of the water consumed by the Israelis."
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
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Uefa Champions League, Group C
Liverpool v Red Star Belgrade
Anfield, Liverpool
Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory