Wadi Gaza is the estuary of Nahal Besor, a stream mentioned in the Bible. It flows west from Hebron in the West Bank, through Israeli territory and on through Gaza into the Mediterranean Sea. Today, after 18 months of war, Wadi Gaza is characterized by “pollution from debris, wastewater, corpses, ammunition, and explosives,” in the words of Nada Majdalani, the Palestinian director of EcoPeace Middle East.
Nevertheless, spring is still the migration season in Israel and Palestine. This region forms a narrow land bridge joining Europe, Asia, and Africa, marking one of the world’s busiest flight paths for an estimated 500 million birds. Many of them — flamingos, herons, storks, cranes — land in Wadi Gaza, one of the few natural preserves in the Gaza Strip, which grew into one of the most densely populated areas in the world over the last two decades because of Israeli restrictions.
