Wadi Gaza

Wadi Gaza is the Gaza Strip’s main watercourse and a boundary between two contrasting landscapes: the northern third of the territory belongs to the red sands of the Philistian plain, while the southern two-thirds lie in the more fertile sandy loess of the northern Negev coast.[6] Its wetland supports a variety of plants and animals, and treated water entering the valley had improved habitat for dozens of bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species by 2022.[3]

The waterway runs approximately nine kilometers across the Gaza Strip to the Mediterranean, within a broader stream system described as extending about 105 kilometers through the Negev and southern Hebron area.[3] Rain-fed springs in the hills near Hebron, more than 100 kilometers east of the wetland, naturally sustain the system.[1] Academic geographical usage identifies Nahal Besor as Wadi Ghazze.[4] In coverage of a politically charged settlement proposal, Nahal Besor was parenthetically identified as “Nahal Gaza in the Strip.”[7] A subject-heading guide places the Besor River in both Israel and the Gaza Strip but does not itself state that Wadi Gaza and the Besor River are equivalent names.[8]

Nahal Besor and Nahal Shikmah are the two principal ephemeral streams crossing the southern coastal plains, with outlets approximately 20 kilometers apart.[9] The Besor drainage basin covers about 3,600 square kilometers, with tributaries originating in the Avdat Plateau, Arad, the Lahav hills, and the western Hebron Hills.[10] The Beersheba River is one of its tributaries, and several tributaries of that river originate in the Hebron Mountains.[9]

Loess predominates in the southern coastal plain, grading into sand, and Gaza receives somewhat less than 400 millimeters of precipitation annually.[9] The Besor and its tributaries have cut parts of the loess zone into a landscape of small hillocks and gullies described as badlands.[9] In the Beersheba Basin, flooding recurs almost annually, chiefly because tributaries cross relatively impermeable loess areas.[9]

Besor appears in the biblical account of David’s pursuit of the Amalekites in I Samuel 30:9, 10, and 21, where 200 of his followers stopped beside the watercourse.[11] The nineteenth-century explorer Victor Guérin identified that biblical stream with Wadi el-Ghazza, which enters the Mediterranean southwest of Gaza.[11]

The wider Besor system also figured in military water supply during the British army’s Gaza–Beersheba front campaign.[12] At Ein Besor, whose spring flows throughout the year even during severe drought, the army established a major water-supply base and a streambed dam holding more than two million liters.[12] Camel caravans carrying tanks transported water daily to military outposts, and a British-built concrete water-capture structure remained at the site when it was described in a later travel account.[12]

A 2022 report said Palestinians had proclaimed the valley a nature reserve in the 1990s.[3] Another 2022 account described it as Gaza’s first nature reserve without specifying when it was declared; the sources do not establish whether they refer to the same designation.[13] By that year, the valley was the focus of a long-term rehabilitation program intended to address pollution, encroachment, unauthorized construction, and flooding.[13]

For more than three decades, sewage was pumped directly into Wadi Gaza, while parts of the valley became dumping grounds for household refuse and construction debris.[13] Urban expansion and waste disposal transformed the once-fertile wetland into a heavily polluted environment.[1] A 2022 account put wastewater discharge into the valley at approximately 16,000 cubic meters a day until the previous year and linked the pollution to health problems among families living along the waterway.[13] A January 2013 profile of nearby Bureij likewise characterized the wadi as an open sewage pond draining toward the sea.[14]

The Hebron/Besor/Gaza stream was one of two transboundary streams selected for pollution research described in a 2006 chapter.[15] The proposed work sought to establish catchment-scale chemical and biological monitoring for that stream and the Zomar/Alexander stream, allowing restoration interventions and their relative cost-effectiveness to be assessed.[15] This work followed the establishment of Israel’s River Restoration Administration in 1994 to coordinate rehabilitation by governmental and nongovernmental bodies.[15]

The regional research identified untreated sewage, low-quality effluent, agricultural runoff, urban stormwater, and industrial discharges as sources of stream pollution.[15] It also described severe pollution as a threat to human health and natural ecosystems, and noted that overpumping during water scarcity had dried the headwaters of many streams; these were regional findings rather than measurements specific to Wadi Gaza.[15]

After approximately 20 years of planning, a German-built sewage treatment plant began operating in central Gaza in early 2021.[1] Untreated effluent stopped entering the valley after the plant opened.[13] Designed to serve a population of one million, the facility was initially expected to discharge up to 60,000 cubic meters of treated water into the wadi each day, with that volume eventually doubling.[1] It uses three levels of purification and has backup energy supplied by biogas and solar power.[1]

A UN Development Programme master plan for five development areas was finalized in 2019, and implementation began in 2022.[1] The broader rehabilitation effort was planned over a decade and led by five local Gaza governments with UNDP support.[13] Initial Belgian funding of $1.3 million supported a cleanup expected to take approximately four months.[3] The 2022 project estimate was $66 million.[13] A 2023 account gave a different figure, stating that $50 million was needed and $9.3 million had been raised; the reports did not reconcile the amounts.[1]

By 2023, approximately 35,000 tons of garbage had been removed from the wetland.[1] Further work included sifting sand to remove smaller plastic debris, constructing flood protection, and planting 15 native tree species over approximately 40,000 square meters.[1] Flood-protection and planting work was scheduled to continue through 2024–2025.[1] A baseline study of migrating birds was undertaken to help measure the restoration’s effects, and discussions were held about a further study of returning birds.[1]

The rehabilitation plan envisioned Wadi Gaza as a publicly accessible green belt supporting employment in agriculture, tourism, and small businesses.[13][1] Planned facilities included a biodiversity museum, botanical garden, birdwatching towers, playgrounds, cafés, a restaurant, sports facilities, an amusement park, and camping areas.[1] Educational and recreational facilities were also part of the longer-term development proposals, with local officials anticipating new jobs.[3]

The wadi was on UNESCO’s tentative list of World Heritage sites, and restoration staff hoped it would eventually gain a place on the permanent list.[1] Its planned public spaces and birdwatching infrastructure formed part of an effort to combine biodiversity protection with recreation and local economic activity.[1]

An important Middle Bronze II settlement was discovered at al-Moghraqa in the Wadi Gaza area.[16] Further upstream, Tell el-Far’ah (South) stands on a loess cliff above the banks of Nahal Besor, approximately 24 kilometers southeast of Gaza.[4] A photograph dated approximately 1920–1933 bears the historical title “Wady Ghazzeh (south of Gaza)” and describes nearby mounds as the “Site of earliest Egyptian town in Palestine”; the catalog supplies no further archaeological details.[17]

Farther upstream in the broader Besor system, Ein Besor is notable for its year-round spring and the remains of a British military water-supply installation. The surviving features described in a historical travel account included a concrete water-capture structure and the location of a streambed dam that had held more than two million liters.[12]

On October 13, 2023, the Israeli government ordered residents of northern Gaza and humanitarian relief organizations to move south of Wadi Gaza within 24 hours.[5] The instruction included people sheltering in United Nations facilities. The report gave 1.1 million people in its account of the order but elsewhere estimated that 1.2 million people were affected, without reconciling the figures.[5] The IDF subsequently acknowledged that more time would be needed, while continuing operations in northern Gaza and maintaining that civilians should move south.[5]

During the central Gaza ground maneuver in December 2023, the Juhor al-Dik area was identified with Wadi Gaza in reporting on operations there and around al-Bureij refugee camp.[18] Those areas were described as controlling Salah al-Din Road, the principal road running the length of the Gaza Strip.[18] The wadi continued to serve as a geographic reference for Israeli military operations in 2024.[2]

A 2025 dossier circulated as a United Nations Security Council document, citing UNCTAD and other assessments, included the Wadi Gaza nature reserve among natural areas described as damaged or destroyed, alongside coastal areas, water, soil, and ecosystem services.[19] Broader estimates cited in the dossier put the destruction of plant life across Gaza at 83 percent and destruction of the agriculture, forestry, and fishing economy at 93 percent; these figures concern Gaza as a whole, not the wadi alone.[19] In 2025, al-Nuseirat Municipality reported clearing the Wadi Gaza valley ahead of winter, alongside maintenance of water lines and repairs to roads.[20]

Amnesty International and other nongovernmental organizations argued that the October 2023 evacuation order might amount to forced displacement, while the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the instructions, combined with the siege, were incompatible with international humanitarian law.[5]

Water management has also been politically sensitive: a 2023 account stated that Israeli reservoirs diverted much of the water before it reached Gaza, leaving the wetland dry for years and receiving water in rainy winters when dams were opened or maintenance was undertaken.[1]