Iran says Israeli attacks severely harm air, water, and soil quality

Israel’s 12-day military campaign against Iran caused extensive ecological harm, with huge cleanup costs and heightened public health risks, according to Iran’s Department of Environment.

Missile strikes and bombings in Tehran and other cities released vast quantities of pollutants into the air and water systems and generated massive quantities of hazardous debris, the department said on July 13, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

“The attacks not only caused civilian casualties and infrastructural damage, but also severely compromised the country’s natural resources.”

Tehran alone generated an estimated 150,000 tons of war rubble, according to the report, with cleanup costs exceeding 7,500 billion rials ($8.7 million), as per the report.

Waste disposal from industrial and military sites added another 3,000 billion rials ($3.5 million).

“Oil storage sites in Rey and Kan were also hit, destroying 19.5 million liters of fuel and releasing more than 47,000 tons of greenhouse gases and nearly 579,000 kilograms of airborne toxins into the capital's atmosphere,” read the statement from the department.

“These emissions pushed air quality in several provinces into the hazardous range.”

The department also warned of threats to water tables, soil, and biodiversity due to chemical leakage, sewage overflow, and thermal radiation, adding that assessments were ongoing and that full reports would be submitted to national and international authorities.

According to the UK-based Conflict and Environment Observatory, which monitors the environmental impact of war and military activity, there has been significant environmental damage in Israel too.

Missiles which hit a refinery complex in the country triggered fires and pipeline damage, its report said.

Israel's latest government figures state there were 43 fires in buildings and 65 forest fires and fires in open areas.

"Damage to urban areas, including to commercial and residential buildings, can create inhalational hazards for people from pulverised building materials and combustion products," The Conflict and Environment Observatory added, after the Iranian attacks of 530 ballistic missiles, destroyed large swathes of residential areas in addition to more secretive sites.

By Khagan Isayev