In the eyes of Israeli authorities, Palestinians in Gaza have it “too good”. Three years into Israel’s genocide, the survivors have been pushed into ever smaller areas of land amid rubble, rubbish and disease, without adequate shelter or sanitation. Apparently, even that is too much.

In late September, a foul smell spread across Gaza City overnight. At first, residents searched for its source around them, wondering whether it was coming from a toilet or even one of their sleeping children. Then reports of the same stench began coming in from across the city. Israeli aircraft had reportedly dropped hundreds of packets containing a foul-smelling substance over populated areas.

“Today, all of us in Gaza City woke up to a foul, rotten smell in the truest sense of the word … Israeli occupation drones were spraying this foul stench to pollute the air. Even the air?” said one witness to AJ .

Israel has, in fact, spent nearly two decades weaponising foul smells against Palestinians.

Skunk water, the leading Israeli olfactory ordnance now believed to be in use in Gaza, was developed in 2004 by the Israeli company Odortec in partnership with Israel Police’s Technological Development Department, and first deployed against Palestinian protesters in Nilin in 2008. It is classified as a “scent-based non-lethal weapon” for crowd control and can be fired from water cannon or dropped from drones.

From Nilin, its use spread across the occupied West Bank. It became a regular feature of demonstrations in........

© Al Jazeera