The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the Department of Global Health and Public Health for Peace and Justice in Palestine invite you to join the second session in a series exploring Environmental Health in Palestine on November 5, 2025 at 10am PT with Dr. Amira Aker and Dr. Ahlam Abuawad. Register here.

Gaza is currently facing an unprecedented environmental and public health catastrophe, driven by extensive military operations carried out by Israel and its military, which have systematically collapsed the region’s essential life-support systems. General conditions are defined by a profound multi-faceted environmental health crisis stemming from a systemic breakdown of infrastructure. This presentation examines the interconnected threats across water, sanitation, waste management, and pervasive contamination. The immediate consequences are a catastrophic surge in communicable diseases, extreme food insecurity, and the saturation of the environment with approximately millions of tons of hazardous debris and contaminants. The crisis locks in a legacy of intergenerational harm. Exposure to contaminants, chronic noise pollution, and the total destruction of essential services will likely drive adverse health outcomes for generations to come.

Dr. Amira Aker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health. Her inter-disciplinary research is focused on identifying the exposures sources of environmental contaminants and their potential health impacts in collaboration with Indigenous communities.

Dr. Ahlam Abuawad is a postdoctoral fellow in the Epidemiology Department at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She is a Palestinian-American who earned her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences, and her research primarily focuses on arsenic, nutrition, and metabolic outcomes such as BMI and diabetes.