More than a year since the war with the armed Lebanese Islamic group Hezbollah ended, and months after a ceasefire was reached with the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza, Israel is still grappling with the fallout of the war and eco-terror on its environment.
“You can still see the damage if you stand on a high place,” Gilad Ostrovsky, the chief forester at Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), a quasi-governmental organization that cares for large areas of Israel’s forestry and nature reserves, told The Jerusalem Report in a recent interview.
This is particularly true of swaths of land near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, he noted.
Speaking of the vista from Mount Canaan, just north of Safed, he said, “In some major portions of the view, you can still easily see black scenery, ash, and burnt trees. In the summer, there was still the smell of the smoke.”
Thousands of dunams
In the south of Israel, even before the current war in Gaza, years of incendiary balloons, kites, and other devices lobbed by terrorist factions across the border caused widespread devastation to forests and farmlands in the periphery area.
In the recent war, volleys of rockets fired from both Gaza and Lebanon sparked fires that burnt tens of thousands of dunams in the North and South.
According to data from Israel’s Institute for National Strategic Studies, some 13,500 rockets were launched from Gaza since October 7, 2023, and roughly 22,000 missiles were fired from Lebanon and Syria. Many of these projectiles sparked blazes in the North and the South.
“In agricultural land, in the southern part of the western Negev, there were problems of crops being burnt,” Ostrovsky said. “The war with Hezbollah, on the northern border, actually burned a much larger area. About 20,000 dunams were burnt from October 7, and the year after.”
War challenges
He explained that these fires are particularly difficult to address. Compared to wildfires that begin on the ground, those that are started by rockets and other airborne ordnance are challenging because a whole tree, from the very top, can go up in flames, creating a larger, more intense fire.
Further, with these types of strikes, it’s impossible to predict where a fire might break out, as there is no way to know where a rocket might crash until after it is already airborne. Unlike open or urban areas, the location of a rocket crash may be difficult to access by traditional means.
Additionally, when severe damage occurs, it can take a long time for the environment to recover, Ostrovsky explained. Trees, particularly trees older than eight decades or more, require extensive time to recover. Wildlife also suffers greatly.
“We can see, for example, streams and special habitats near springs; if they are burnt, it will take time to recover, and we will not see the same fauna there for several years,” he described. “It’s very hard to have accurate data. But what we can see is that very slow-moving animals cannot run away from the fire. So you can see remnants of them all around.”
Degraded soil
Compounding the long-lasting damage is that the soil itself becomes heavily degraded.
“In a massive fire, it’s not just the upper flowers, bushes, and trees that are damaged. Some 20 to 30 centimeters deep into the earth is like an oven,” Ostrovsky said.
Consequently, everything living in the first half-meter below the surface suffers.
The heat also changes and degrades the physical and chemical structure of the soil. This not only makes it harder for the living flora and fauna that rely upon it, but it also causes the soil to become more easily eroded.
“It’s easily swept down by gravity. We can actually lose soil,” the chief forester continued. “And soil is a basic component of ecosystems. It takes a lot of years to build a healthy cover. After some massive shock, when the rain comes the runoff takes the soil down. It becomes a degraded habitat.”
Rehabilitation efforts
Among the challenges in combating and limiting the spread of fire-related damage was that rocket attacks often occurred in volleys. Given the terrain in northern Israel, interception efforts were presented with unique challenges.
On May 27, 2024, for example, as the Israeli government approved a NIS 3.5 billion plan to rehabilitate northern Israel and assist evacuees in the region, Hezbollah rocket, missile, and drone attacks sparked several massive wildfires.
That evening, another volley of around 25 rockets aimed at the Kiryat Shmona area ignited several more.
“There are places with severe damage, meaning the whole system was burnt. Ash on the ground with this white coloring. Even the trees themselves that were burnt just fell down,” Ostrovsky said.
He went on, noting that the character of the fires created by these attacks is different from fires that occurred naturally or began on the ground.
“It’s not like one fire breaks out in the forest and we can stop it. It’s a lot of spots all over. Some big, some small, some severe, and some less so,” he said.
Although KKL-JNF doesn’t have the capacity to address all the areas where the fires occur, Ostrovsky said that protecting people and communities is its priority. In some areas with severe damage, near places such as streams or on steep slopes, KKL-JNF is able to build terraces and other structures to mitigate issues such as soil degradation.
“Also, we create belts around towns, villages, with reduced vegetation to reduce the biomass and fuel, so if something happens it won’t become another wall or a fire,” he went on, clarifying that as the vegetation regrows and creeps back over time, maintaining those belts will be an ongoing effort.
Ostrovsky added that KKL-JNF engages in other important activities, such as building dirt roads to allow firetrucks to more easily access vulnerable areas, and organizing aerial firefighting efforts so that planes can bring water to quench fires.
Environmental recovery in the wake of the wars in the North and the South is an issue that Israel has aimed to address. In 2025, the Environmental Protection Ministry laid out its goals in the government’s annual work plan book, which includes restoration efforts in conflict-affected areas.
Nevertheless, KKL-JNF remains at the forefront of much of the hands-on rehabilitation work.
“We put a lot of money, a lot of our budget, into [restoration] processes. We also want to create partnerships with regional and local authorities. But KKL-JNF brings professional knowledge and a lot of experience,” Ostrovsky stated.■