When Israel launched a surprise, precision strike wave against Iran’s nuclear and other essential infrastructure on June 13, 2025, the world’s attention turned not only to the military, political, and human fallout but also to the environmental risks. Iran and its leaders immediately accused Israel of committing environmental war crimes. The supporting evidence for this claim was fires at oil depots, fuel deposits being damaged, and the targeting of nuclear research and development facilities.

From Israel’s perspective, these accusations are just distractions and diversions to ignore a larger truth: Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons poses a larger and longer-lasting environmental threat to the Middle East than Israel’s defensive measures ever will.  

Israel has long believed and employed the practice of stopping existential threats before they come to fruition. This doctrine led Israel to conduct strikes, similar to its 2025 attack, on nuclear facilities in Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007. While both operations were controversial at the same time, which seems to be the trend with Israel’s attacks, they are now acknowledged to have prevented potentially worse, specifically environmental, outcomes.

In June 2025, Israel used the same logic when it attacked Iran. Nuclear facilities in Natanz, Fordow, and Arak, among other infrastructure, where uranium enrichment along with other nuclear activities were targeted. Israel’s goal was clear: cripple Iran’s nuclear program before it had operational weapons. For Israeli leaders, the alternative to not attacking was unthinkable. An Iran with nuclear capabilities would not only destabilize regional politics but also risk a major humanitarian and environmental disaster.  

See Related Article: Experts at US-Arab Policy Conference debate Mideast’s future as global energy supplier

Critics of the attack warned and cited instances of radioactive leaks. However, agencies like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed the lack of leaks and are also continuing to measure sites to ensure no radioactive increase. Chemical exposure is the real environmental danger. Chemicals used in enrichment that are not cared for and stored properly can become toxic and can potentially be inhaled or contaminate groundwater. The underground nature of Iran’s nuclear development facilities helped decrease the chance of air exposure. Additionally, Israeli military planners deliberately designed strikes to maximize damage to infrastructure and minimize environmental fallout. Israel’s precision proves that Israel recognizes environmental safety even amid war. 

Iran’s environmental department has accused Israel of targeting fossil-fuel storage, oil depots, industrial plants, and nuclear facilities with the intention of causing environmental destruction. Tehran’s state media highlighted fires at oil depots and refineries, claiming that the attacks and subsequent destruction created toxic air and soil contamination. Israel rejects these accusations. Its view is that the strikes were carefully planned and carried out with precision to undermine Iran’s economic, military, and nuclear programs.

By crippling key infrastructure, Israel seeks to cut off financial and physical resources as well as the support they provide for Iran’s proxies. From Israel’s perspective, Iran is attempting to weaponize environmental justice as propaganda while ignoring the larger risks that they are creating by their national ambitions. 

See Related Article: Iran is sinking in sinkholes from overwatering

While Iran points towards oil fires and chemical leaks, Israel argues that the long-term environmental risks of a nuclear Iran far outweigh the immediate impact of its targeted strikes. Consider the following situations:

• Nuclear accident: Poorly secured and contained enrichment facilities could leak uranium into soil, water, and other resources
• Regional proliferation: If Iran secures nuclear weapons, other nations in the region may pursue their programs in response, exponentially increasing the risk of accident and sabotage
• Terrorist access: With Iranian proxies active across the Middle East, material or weapons could fall into the hands of groups with no regard for environmental or human safety
• Regional instability: A nuclear Iran would increase the likelihood of war, where nuclear attacks would devastate the environment 

For Israel, these risks make preventative action not only the way to save human life but also to save the environment from potential destruction.

Iran’s accusations of environmental war crimes fit into a broader narrative attempting to portray Israel as reckless and destructive. But Israel points out key hypocrisies. Iran’s secrecy, blocking inspectors from accessing facilities, Iran’s industrial pollution, and their weaponization of outrage shift their malpractice onto Israel. 

Israel frames its strategy around an ethical argument: to allow Iran to continue unchecked would not only be a gamble in terms of Israeli lives but also with the environmental health of the Middle East as a whole. 

The strikes on Iran have sparked fierce debate, but from Israel’s perspective, the choice was easy: either accept the risks of a nuclear Iran or act decisively to stop it.

Israel chose action, not out of disregard for the environment, but because it views preventive strikes as the lesser of two ecological evils. The immediate damage pales in comparison to the devastation a nuclearized Iran could unleash.

For Israel, protecting the land, air, and water of the Middle East means ensuring that a nuclear catastrophe never becomes part of the region’s future.

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What is the taste of honey from bees collecting pollen durin a war? Do snakes feel stress? A new study shows that war impacts the least expected creatures

Animals too feel the effects from the stress of war, finds a new study conducted at Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology. Researchers reveal that the Israel-Hamas war has had a severe impact on animals.

The study, which focused on geckos, found that the sound of explosions from fired rockets induces stress and anxiety in these creatures, leading to a sharp increase in their metabolic rates — an energy cost that, if chronic, may be life-threatening. The researchers hypothesize that these stress responses characterize many other animals, especially those who live in the conflict zones in northern and southern Israel.

Related: Field notes from a Sharjah summer trek

Shahar Dubiner, one of the researchers said: “Our research was conducted in a laboratory at Tel Aviv University and pertained to the reverberations of explosions from interceptions in the Tel Aviv area. However, given the unequivocal results showing symptoms of stress, we can infer that animals that are in the immediate conflict zones in the south and north of the country, where the intensity and frequency of fire are much higher, suffer from significantly more severe stress and anxiety symptoms that may endanger their lives.”

The study was led by Shahar Dubiner, Prof. Shai Meiri and Prof. Eran Levin — in collaboration with Reut Vardi of the University of Oxford. The study was published in the journal Ecology.

The sounds of war are a sort of sound pollution which probably also affect marine life like whales, coral, dolphins and baby oysters.

“The most tragic aspect of war is the loss of human life, among both soldiers and civilians. However, animals are also severely affected, both directly and indirectly, in ways that may threaten their survival. A few weeks before October 7, we began working on a long-term study to measure the rate of energy consumption of small ground geckos of the species Stenodactylus sthenodactylus.

“We obviously did not foresee the outbreak of the war, but unintentionally, we recorded the energy consumption of five geckos during the rocket barrages launched into Tel Aviv in the first month of the war,” says Prof. Shai Meiri. Recently, Meiri published a study on rain and biodiversity.

The study’s findings showed that at the sound of the bombings, the geckos’ metabolic rate jumped to double what it was when they were at rest. Their breathing became faster, and they clearly exhibited signs of stress.

The experiment lasted up to four hours after the barrages, yet even within this timeframe the geckos did not calm down and return to their resting levels. Moreover, even after a month of continuous fighting, the geckos did not acclimate to the sound of the explosions — their stress response remained unchanged.

Prof. Levin notes that “A state of stress is detrimental to both humans and animals. To compensate for the increase in oxygen consumption and depletion of energy reserves, animals need to eat more. Even if they manage to find food, in the process they expose themselves to predators and lose opportunities to reproduce.

“In a situation of ongoing conflict, such as the current reality in Gaza, the Gaza Envelope, and along the Israeli-Lebanese border, the metabolic cost can be significant and have a real impact on the energy reserves and activity periods of reptiles and other animals. This can exacerbate their conservation status, especially for species that are already endangered.”

The researchers note that the findings of this study are consistent with another experiment conducted during Operation Guardian of the Walls, in which they also observed a stress response in a small snake of the species Xerotyphlops syriacus.

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Building with invasive plants; Healing through shared war stories

U.S. Veterans, Iraqi refugees and the public will join environmental artist Sarah Kavage and Iraqi designer Yaroub Al-Obaidi in constructing an Iraqi guest house, called a mudhif. Constructed of phragmites, an invasive reed grass, this traditional Iraqi marshland structure will be built on the grounds of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Northwest Philadelphia. 

Mudhifs have traditionally been used for town meetings and ceremonies. At the Roxborough site, it will serve as a gathering place to share experiences of war through storytelling, healing and recovery among U.S. Veterans, Iraqi immigrant communities and the public.

The construction of the cutting-edge art installation Al-Mudhif will kick off on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, with a dedication ceremony. The building process involves tying bundles of reeds into 20-foot-long columns, and then shaping them into huge parabolic arches. Hand-woven mats are then tied over and between the columns, forming a roof. Finally, crafted lattice panels are attached to the sides, allowing for both sunlight and airflow into the interior and enclosing the entire hut.

Connecting with Iraqi communities in nature through the building process of this sanctuary offers a significant memorable and cultural space for U.S. Veterans who were deployed in Iraq to connect with local Iraqi communities and culture.

“It is not often that Veterans are able to heal and connect with residents from areas that were engaged in conflict,” said RADM Karen Flaherty-Oxler, Director of the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz (Philadelphia) VA Medical Center. “Opportunities such as this help bring their experience full circle, often providing closure, healing and building bridges across cultures.”

South Philadelphian Marine Corps Veteran Leroy Anthony Enck says, ”For some veterans and military members, our time in Iraq was marked with loss and destruction: losing fellow service-members in body or spirit, witnessing a similar loss among indigenous communities in Iraq, and observing—despite our best efforts—the environmental destruction our presence and operations facilitated. 

“Some of us have struggled with the larger moral implications of this impact, and after participating in the difficult work of moral engagement, have decided to dedicate ourselves to this work as atonement. Now, we have an opportunity to engage in the hefty work of building: constructing the first mudhif outside of Iraq, building new community with our brethren among the former Iraqis who now call Philadelphia home, and giving—rather than taking—an opportunity for generations young and old to experience greater understanding of people and flora displaced through no choice of their own.”

The involvement of Iraq War Veterans in the project was facilitated by Reverend Chris Antal, a Staff Chaplain at CMCVAMC. Antal had this to say, “Some Veterans who served in Iraq are often burdened by difficult memories and painful emotions. Collaborations such as this help build trust, foster reconciliation and create a sanctuary amidst the calming presence of nature.”

The project is part of a larger art initiative Lenapehoking~Watershed with the Alliance for Watershed Education (AWE) for which Sarah will create multiple site-specific, temporary installations along the Delaware River circuit trail, exclusively using natural materials such as meadow grasses and invasive phragmites. We will activate the installation of the Al-Mudhif with an accompanying exhibition and extended programming around the exchange of war experiences, healing, and intercultural encounters from June to October 2021.

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Anyone who hasn’t been to Syria in the last few years can’t possibly grasp the full extent of the horrors Syrians have endured, but we do know it has been unspeakably hard. To take the edge off, a handful of artists in Damascus built what the Guinness Book of Records recently confirmed is the world’s largest mural made with trash.

Led by Moaffak Makhoul, six artists spent six months building the wall using whatever recycled materials they could find. Old spark plugs, broken tiles, keys, rusted iron, bicycle wheels, broken mirrors – all were fair game for the colorful mural.

Measuring 2, 362 square feet in total, the largest mural made with recycled materials in the world, the inspiration piece stands just outside of a primary school in the country’s capital.

Although this part of the country has been relatively unscathed in the three year battle that has killed at least 140,000, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and made refugees of two million, no Syrian is untouched.

Related: Collapsible refugee shelters powered by the sun

Everybody knows somebody who has lost a family member and the atmosphere is undoubtedly tense – particularly for children who have been robbed of the opportunity to live an innocent life.

Makhoul told Reuters that now is the most appropriate time for the mural.

“I’ve been sad to see a lot of my colleagues, artists, all traveling abroad and leaving,” he said. “God be with them and give them luck – but the country also needs all of us.”

Students told Reuters that they are excited about the mural. Not only did it make one child more excited to come to school, but another said the materials made him more aware of what can be done with what some people think of trash.

What a beautiful metaphor – the broken pieces of the country may one day be recombined into a unified, brighter whole – just like this incredible labor of love.

Image via Guinness Book of World Records

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The good news is that 800 tons of Syria’s chemical weapons are scheduled to be destroyed before the end of December. The bad news is, the byproducts of this chemical weapon destruction will be dumped into the Mediterranean Sea where they could damage fragile ecosystems.

It’s nearly impossible to sift good news out from stories of the Syrian war: Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq have together taken in more than one million Syrian refugees. But this leaves millions of others homeless or displaced within this war-torn country.

Even the fortunate few who find relative safety as refugees are anything but safe. They face violence, crime, heat, cold, rain, thirst, disease, malnutrition and their children are being exploited to do their host country’s dirty work.

People in faraway lands send hand-made hats to try to help keep some Syrian refugee children warm during this winter, only have these gifts meet bureaucracy and corruption at the host country’s border.  But now Assad’s regime has agreed to destroy chemical weapons only months after it denied their existence.

On Friday December 7th, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) claimed to have destroyed some of Syria’s chemical weapons and this organization will receive a Nobel price for global disarmament.

But there is a dark side to even this glimmer of good news. The OPCW recently said it is “technically feasible” to destroy these chemical weapons in the Mediterranean Sea.

No one has given details of this chemical weapon destruction, but it is likely that they are being destroyed aboard a ship by hydrolysis instead of incineration.

What this means is that the chemical weapons will be mixed with other chemicals which will neutralize and de-weaponize them.

But one of the first things a budding chemistry student learns is to balance chemical equations. Except for the miniscule fraction of matter converted to energy or transmuted in nuclear reactions, all of the chemical elements present before the reaction will be present after the reaction.

For all practical purposes, matter is neither created nor destroyed. This means these weapons won’t disappear. They will simply change chemical form to something considered less harmful than the original chemical weapons. But this does not mean they will be rendered harmless.

Israel National News reports that Professor Moshe Kol, Organic Chemistry Professor at Tel Aviv University is concerned the the byproducts of chemical weapon destruction will harm sea life.

Byproducts of the destruction of Assad’s chemical weapons are likely to include sodium hypochlorite and phosphoric acid. These are less harmful than the original chemical weapons.

On a small scale we might even consider them harmless. For example, sodium hypochlorite is used in chlorine laundry bleach and phosphoric acid is one of the main ingredients of Coca Cola.

But what is harmless at low concentrations and a small scale can be very harmful at large concentrations and an enormous scale. More than 800 tons of potentially harmful chemicals will be dumped into the Mediterranean Sea over the next few months. And that’s the good news.

Creative Commons photo of Wadi Qandil beach near Lattakia, Syria by Victor Ibrahiem via Wikimedia.

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Surrounded by Muslim countries that – for all kinds of reasons both justified and otherwise – don’t particularly love their politics, Israelis always have war on their minds. Many Kibbutzim and cities have bomb shelters and when there’s a hint of trouble brewing, locals rush to purchase to buy gas masks.

Sometimes it seems like paranoia, but every so often air raids do take place, and when they do, 27-year-old Hila Raam wants to make sure that children and adults alike make it home safely – even if they aren’t able to find a bomb shelter in time.

Rhino skin is a bomb-proof shelter backpack made with 19 layers of Kevlar fabric. Five times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis, according to a Wikipedia applications, Kevlar has many applications from bicycle tires to body armor.

For £300, parents especially can rest easy knowing that their children will be safe even when bombs are falling from the sky.

In the event of a strike, the wearer need only pull down the straps located on either side of the head and lie down, and all of their vital organs – their brain, heart, kidneys and liver – will be protected.

“This bag pack can be used in diverse ways,” writes Raam on her website. “As a regular bag pack, as a vest standing alone or as a combined bag pack with the vest and bag attached together as one unit.”

The young designer told Daily Mail that she discovered that 60 percent of people living in countries that are under daily attack never make it to a shelter in time. With Rhino Skin, they should be safe if they have to drop down exactly where they are.

Of course, nobody wants to profit from war (well, ok, I take that back – damn the warmongers), but ultimately Raam hopes for a day when her design will become irrelevant.

Don’t we all?

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Until Dr. Michel Chalhoub, a Beirut-based engineer, secured funding to make a patch of sea off the coast of Tripoli beautiful again by sinking a huge pile of army vehicles about 12 km from the coast. Disused tanks, vans, and even a barge and crane were lowered into the water  to establish a new artificial reef that was completed in June, 2012.

Almost one year later, the American-educated Dr. Chalhoub is reluctant to say whether or not sinking the tanks and vans has made a measurable difference in Tripoli’s marine health, he told Green Prophet.

Unlike mega developers Nakheel in Dubai, who promised to build 500 artificial reefs along the Gulf Coast in order to offset the damage of their many construction projects, and Bahrain, who boasted that their artificial reef restored their waters within a fast 16 weeks, Dr. Chalhoub takes a more conservative approach to his work.

“We will be providing underwater inspection this year. We expect that it is still somewhat early to draw conclusions,” he told Green Prophet.

He was similarly matter-of-fact about the materials used to create the artificial reef, which is a particular magnate for algae, bacteria, corals and egg-laying fish:

“I used (1) vans that I joined two-by-two like train wagons on common chassis, (2) natural rock, (3) special concrete inside the vans, (4) Army scrap steel beds which I used to reinforce the concrete, (5) Army tanks, (6) Army barge/marine carrier, (7) a separate floating 110 tom capacity crane. The reef is made of several pieces deployed at distances between 70 – 100 m approx. from each other.”

But maybe he’ll be wrong. Maybe the army vehicles taken from Lebanon’s Kfarshima army junkyard, with permission of course, will be crawling with funky creatures when the follow-up mission starts.

Like the Red Sea and the Arabian/Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean has changed in recent years thanks to rising temperatures, acidification, poorly managed coastal development, overfishing and a host of other harmful feedback loops.

“Waters have deteriorated due to waste dumping and faced an acute pollution problem in 2006 from oil spills during bombardments,” Dr. Chalhoub said in an email.

But the artificial reef is expected to rejuvenate the eastern Mediterranean in the same way that shiprecks spawn such incredible biodiversity – by providing a place for fish and flora to reproduce.

If successful, the project in theory should jumpstart the local fishing industry and become a new, more upbeat, recreational scuba diving destination.

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Reaching his hand down to squeeze the hearts of passive observers in a way that no grisly news report has been able to do, the Syrian artist’s recent transposition of Gustav Klimpt’s iconic “The Kiss” on a war-ravaged building in Syria has mobilized scores of global citizens, while at least one million residents and refugees continue to suffer amid one of the worst humanitarian disasters the world has ever hidden from.

Azzan’s “Freedom Graffiti” is the latest installation in his series entitled “Syrian Museum,” in which he explores the ongoing horror in his native country. Born in Damascus in 1980, he currently works and lives in Dubai.

The New York Times reports that the series blends works by Western masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Henri Matisse, Goya and Picasso, with recent photos of Syria’s devastated cityscapes, in an effort to draw comparisons between “the greatest achievements of humanity with the destruction it is also capable of inflicting.”

The original gilded painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt comprised a call for universal love. It was partially inspired by a line in Schiller’s Ode to Joy in Beethoven’s 9th symphony “The Kiss is for the Whole World” and depicts a pair of lovers in a rapturous embrace.

It was enormously popular in 1908, contrary to many of Klimpt’s previous pieces, and still resonates with viewers more than a century later.

Graffiti has played a central role in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Artists in Amman, Cairo and Tunis defy tradition with often daring pieces that assuage the turbulent consciousness of the region’s youth, who face continued poverty, food scarcity, violence and environmental destruction.

But none has borrowed so boldly from the west to drive home a point.

:: New York Times

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Eid began Friday and will end Monday, the last day of the Hajj. When traveling in Palestinian cities, I have always marveled at the street art communities make to welcome pilgrims home.

Eid al-Adha is also known as the Holiday of Sacrifice, the Feast of the Sacrifice, the Major Festival, the Greater Eid and Bakrid.

Fires, ritual animal slaughter (and sharing that meat with the poor), and feasts are among the cherished celebratory customs.

There has been much debate about the role of meat in the celebration. In 2011, Jordanian Princess Alia spoke about the importance of humane animal slaughter when celebrating Eid al-Adha.

There is a growing awareness that customs in some areas of the Middle East, such as making bonfires by burning trash and tires, can harm the environment. Dr. Hammoud al-Awdi, a sociologist at Sanaa University in Yemen, recently told Al-Shorfa:

“This custom [burning trash] might harm the environment. But it comes from the countryside, where children would collect firewood and place it in piles to burn on the eve of Eid.”

Many Muslims around the world are proactively engaging the ancient traditions in new ways, seeking to revive more sustainable, traditional practices and create new environmentally conscious ways to celebrate.

For many families in the Middle East, this year’s holiday has been marked by fear and bloodshed. In Syria, innocent civilians were killed near a children’s playground in Daf al-Shok, a Sunni residential neighborhood in southern Damascus. And al-Awdi said that public fear is also tangible in Yemen’s capital.

To celebrate, he said people stroll in the city’s gardens, or take quick trips, but are careful to return home before dark.

Read more about Muslim holidays:

Eid Al-Adha: The Muslim Festival of Meat?

Jordan’s Princess Alia Calls for Humane Animal Slaughter Ahead of Eid al-Adha

7 Tips for a Sustainable Eid-ul-Adha Festival

Image of pilgrims in Mecca via AHMAD FAIZAL YAHYA, Shutterstock 

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The international aid organization UNICEF, which has stepped up its emergency response in Syria in advance of winter, will purchase the tablets from Medentech, a branch of the Israeli-owned company that is based in Ireland, according to Ynet.

The chlorine tablets are considered a better alternative to boiling water to remove contaminants since the latter method requires fuel that is not only scarce but also emits pollution into the atmosphere.

Israel’s Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz approved the contract because of the grave humanitarian situation that has been unfolding in Syria since May, 2011, although it was politically palatable to do so given that UNICEF is paying for and distributing the AquaTabs as a neutral third party.

Owned by Israel Corporation the company that is a major shareholder of the Better Place electric car venture, Israel Chemicals is a mining company that produces chemicals and fertilizers in addition to water purification systems. It is also one of the country’s biggest environmental offenders that was recently taken to account for the Dead Sea’s dangerously high water levels in the south caused in part by the extraction industry.

The firm is now redeeming itself by providing a much-needed service to the neighboring country, where children are hardest hit by the ceaseless violence.

“Around 1 million children are affected by the conflict inside Syria, and more than 100,000 Syrian children have been displaced to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq,” according to a recent press release.

“UNICEF is urgently scaling up its emergency response to reach hundreds of thousands of children with child protection, water, sanitation and hygiene, health and nutrition, and education initiatives. But a lack of funds is inhibiting what can be achieved. UNICEF has appealed for US$91m for its operations.”

::Aquatabs

Image of boy at drinking fountain, Shutterstock

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