With Israel controlling all of Gaza’s major landfill areas, 900,000 tons of solid waste have been dumped across the enclave, exacerbating a public health crisis.

Abdel Qader Sabbah and Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Dec 16, 2025

GAZA CITY—Amin Sabri’s battered tent was among several sitting at the foot of a hillside of rotting garbage towering some 25 feet in the middle of Gaza City. Barefoot children, their clothes caked in grime, scampered nearby. Flies were everywhere, and the stench of fetid waste blanketed the air.

"This is my tent and this is the garbage dump I’m living across from,” Sabri told Drop Site. “We don’t sleep—not at night, nor during the day—because of the garbage. The smell comes at us constantly, and our children are ill. They suffer from severe headaches. We’re dealing with an infestation of germs and insects.”