DUBAI: Jordan's king said Friday that war was making the threats from climate change even worse in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities resumed between Israel and Hamas after a week-long truce.
King Abdullah II told the UN's COP28 climate talks in Dubai that "we cannot talk about climate change in isolation from the humanitarian tragedies unfolding around us."
"In Gaza, over 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes. Tens of thousands have been injured or killed in a region already on the front lines of climate change," he told a gathering of world leaders.
"The massive destruction of war makes the environmental threats of water scarcity and food insecurity even more severe.
"In Gaza our people are living with little clean water and the bare minimum of food supplies, as climate threats magnify the devastation of war."
The Gaza war has been a major talking point at COP28, where delegations from around the world will try to hammer out a fresh agreement to tackle the climate crisis.
The conflict flared after Palestinian Hamas killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 240, according to Israeli authorities, in an unprecedented attack on October 7.
In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and unleashed an air and ground military campaign in Gaza that the Hamas government says killed around 15,000 people, also mostly civilians.
Iran's delegation walked out of the COP28 talks on Friday in protest at Israel's presence, which delegation chief Ali Akbar Mehrabian said was "contrary to the goals and guidelines of the conference", according to the official IRNA news agency.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog is conducting talks on hostage releases on the sidelines of the conference, while his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas cancelled a planned visit.--AFP