From any spot in Nablus, one can see the settlements sitting atop the hills around the city, overlooking it. The settlements stretch over a large expanse of lands, where red-tiled-roofed houses scatter here and there, surrounded by thick layers of barbed wire and guarded heavily by the Israeli occupation forces.

Upon observing these settlements with a keen eye, one can notice pillars of smoke rising from some of the settlements' large adjacent buildings. If one was to risk his life and venture towards these settlement, one would be able to see the large pipe opening towards the valleys, pumping sewage water of foul smell, which gathered in the nearby towns' fields forming poisonous swamps filled with insects.

Another observation would be the trucks coming out of the settlements' steel gates, loaded with garbage, on its way to dispose of their hazardous cargo in landfills around the heavily-populated Palestinian city of Nablus.

Environmentalists are frightened of the realities being imposed on Nablus, as the grave consequences of the Israeli measures are surfacing each day, casting a dark shadow on the entire province's environment quality in light of the Israeli military hegemony.

Amjad Jabr, director of the Environment Quality Authority (EQA) in Nablus, told IPC that the illegal Israeli settlements are considered the main source of pollution in the province. "In addition to being built in violation of the international legitimacy and against the Palestinian rights, these settlements jeopardize the Palestinian environment, as their mere construction and connection with other settlements required land appropriation, destruction of trees and forests, which negatively impacted the biodiversity of the area," he said.

Jabr added that all the settlements of Nablus pump their waste water; domestic or industrial, into the valleys and fields owned by Palestinians, which polluted every component of the environment and affected human beings and animals alike.

He pointed out that some settlements include factories that produce aluminum, plastic, fiberglass, chemical detergents, paint, pesticides, military products and dies. All these industries are extremely harmful to the environment, and produce heavy elements such as Chromium, Mercury and Lead, which are major pollutants of the environment.

Jabr noted that these settlements have found the Palestinian territories a target for their waste products, without supervision or control on the areas they dump the waste in. He asserted that Palestinians were unable to prevent the operation of these factories inside the settlements, or even ban the waste from being dumped in Palestinian areas.

About the possible procedures for the Palestinian side, Jabr said, "we cannot do anything but to contact international organizations and environment watchdogs in order to exert pressure on Israel to refrain from such actions."

As for the effects on agriculture, Majdi Odeh, an agricultural engineer working in the agriculture department at Nablus province, said that the construction of settlements begins by bulldozing lands and cutting down trees, as most of the settlements are built on mountain peaks and on top of hills, which were formerly lush with olive, almond or forest trees.

"For example, part of the 'Alon Moreh' settlement, which was established on the lands of Salem, Deir El Hatab, Azmout and Beit Dajan villages, was a natural reservation, so were parts of the 'Homesh', 'Shafi Shamron', 'Bracha', 'Itamar', 'Yitzhar', 'Shilo', 'Rachel', 'Aliyah', 'Maaleh Lebona', 'Magdolim', 'Maaleh Ephraim' and 'Git'."

Odeh explained that the factories built inside these settlements produce salts and heavy metals that are dumped into the Palestinian soil, and in turn pollute the natural life, plants and animals of the area, thus affecting their growth. He made clear that some of the area's plants turned from green to black, warning that animals or humans feeding on these plants would suffer dangerous diseases.

On his part, Dr. Tareef Ashour, representative of the Greens Party in Nablus, also warned of the grave consequences of the Israeli violations of the environment, pointing out that the waste dumps and landfills have exceeded 50 in Nablus alone, and that Palestinian territories have become an easy outlet for Israel to get rid of its hazardous waste, which is in violation of the Basel Agreement that prohibits the dumping of nuclear and chemical waste of one country into another without knowledge or coordination.

"When international organizations examined this waste, it found out that it contained 200 poisonous complexes that polluted aquifer water, such as phenyl chloride, tetrachloride, benzene chloride and arsenic, in addition to some gases in the air such as Methane, which is a poisonous and flammable gas," Ashour said.

Dr. Ashour stressed his belief that the areas that have numerous cases of cancer, especially leukemia, bladder and lung cancer must contain an Israeli waste dump nearby. He added that before such horrifying facts, an international fact-finding team should be dispatched to the Palestinian territories and put an end to the Israeli violations.

Israeli authorities have begun making a waste landfill last month in the area of Abu Shusha quarry, between the villages of Deir Sharaf and Qousin, west of Nablus City, in order to dispose of the waste produced by the Israeli areas of Hasharon and Dan, in central Israel, which amount to about 10,000 tons per month, in a blatant transgression of Palestinian environment, particularly in Nablus province.

Abu Shusha quarry sits atop a large aquifer reservoir that provides fresh water for dozens of thousands of civilians in the city of Nablus and western villages. The establishment of this landfill jeopardizes the entire population.

With respect to the legal aspect, Bahaa Al Saadi from the Independent Palestinian Commission for Human Rights considered the continuous Israeli violation of environment an infringement of international agreements, mainly the Geneva Convention and Basel Agreement.