![Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh holds a press conference regarding measures taken against coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in Ramallah, West Bank on April 13, 2020. [Palestinian Prime Ministry / Handout - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200413_2_41885734_53920446-e1591728994309.jpg?fit=1199%2C800&ssl=1)
Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh yesterday called for probing Israel’s burial of hazardous nuclear and chemical waste in the occupied Palestinian territories, Arab48 reported.
During a conference about Climate Change held in Ramallah and attended by a number of foreign ambassadors, Shtayyeh shed light on the dangerous Israeli measures that devastate the Palestinian environment.
He pointed out that the number of cancer patients in the south of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron has sharply increased, linking this to the accumulation of nuclear, chemical and solid Israeli waste.
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“Burying nuclear, chemical and solid Israeli waste poses danger to the environment and to people’s health,” he stressed.
He suggested that the world should look at Climate Change the same way it is looking at the COVID-19; as a pandemic.
The Israeli occupation has uprooted 2.5 million trees since 1967, including 800 ageing olive trees “as part of its war on the environment and as part of its colonial project,” Shtayyeh said.
Under international law, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered occupied Palestinian territories and all Israeli settlement activities there are illegal.