‘It’s Mind-blowing’: 1.7 Million Palestinians Escaped Israel’s Bombardment of Gaza. Most of Their Homes Have Been Damaged or Destroyed
Yarden Michaeli and Avi Scharf
Satellites reveal the vast devastation across the Gaza Strip. The new reality that the Israel Defense Forces’ operations have created will affect the entire region for years. This is how it looks
One of Israel’s most dramatic acts in the war, which erupted following Hamas’ terror attack, is the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Gazans from their homes and the destruction of large swaths of the Strip. Residents, military officials and journalists describe scenes of vast devastation. « It’s like after an atomic bomb, » one of them reported in Haaretz after visiting northern Gaza.
An accurate estimation of the destruction is a challenging task due to the fog of war – and as the IDF restricts entry by journalists. But it’s possible to create a map of the destruction using satellite data, which shows that at least half of all the buildings in the enclave are likely to have been damaged or destroyed, according to American researchers.
Most of the destruction is in the north, but bitter fighting is also underway in the south, as is seen in the satellite data. Some 1.7 million Gazans have fled their homes during the war, and most of them are now in the south, the United Nations says. Huge tent cities have been put up along the Egyptian border. A new humanitarian, security and diplomatic reality has emerged, and it will shape the region for years to come.
OctoberNovemberDecemberJanuaryBeit LahiaBeit HanounJabalyaGaza cityDier al-BalahKhan YunisRafah
Palestine SquareHundreds of buildings around the square have been damaged or destroyed© Planet Labs PBC
Everything is damaged
The reporting on the war emphasizes the vast scope of destruction: Homes, commercial buildings, water and sewage infrastructure, medical facilities, schools, universities, mosques, churches, shopping centers and stores, food factories and aid centers. Roads, archaeological sites and cemeteries have also been damaged. To grasp the dramatic consequences, see first where Gazans lived before the war. Scroll down.
The north was the beating heart
Some 2.3 million Palestinians lived in Gaza, most in the north. This changed after October 7, with Israel’s counter attack in response to Hamas’ murderous assault on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were murdered and hundreds kidnapped, accompanied by widespread torture, mutilation and sexual violence. One of the IDF’s first steps was to order the residents of Gaza’s north to head south. The map shows how many people lived in each of the Strip’s five governorates before the war.
Hundreds of thousands of people quickly fled. The Israeli army’s aggressive bombing campaign has continued with no interruptions save for a brief cease-fire in November when hostages were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Seen in the photo: Bombing in Gaza City during the first week of the war.
Mapping the destruction
The IDF’s bombing from the air, land and sea quickly caused extensive damage throughout the Strip. This satellite-generated map shows the areas damaged, destroyed or affected by collateral damage. The map highlights what Gazans and UN personnel have been saying throughout the war: « Nowhere is safe. »
At least 50 percent of all buildings
At least half the buildings in the Strip are likely to have been damaged or destroyed as of January 29, according to American researchers Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek, who used satellite analysis to create their map. (For their methodology, see below.) They told Haaretz that this was a conservative estimate. « This is mind-blowing, » Scher says. « The rate of ‘damage signals’ we have retrieved is like nothing I have seen in my years of work in this field. » The UN notes that 60 percent of housing units have been damaged or destroyed, according to data from the beginning of February from the Hamas authorities in Gaza.
The American researchers noted that their map doesn’t illustrate the exact extent of damage to each building. But it does show that the damage in the north of Gaza is the greatest, and that the damage in the south is also significant. A separate analysis done by the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) indicates a similar range of destruction in the Strip. A yellow circle is visible on the map. In the picture above: the same area in the north of Gaza, as it appears in the latest damage map released by the UN.
Heart of destruction: Civilian infrastructure
The map shows that massive destruction was caused in Gaza City, where the major concentration of the Strip’s civilian infrastructure is located. Even if those civilian buildings were not hit, they are located in the heart of heavily bombed areas, and substantial time and effort will be needed for life there to return to normal. The UN says 390 educational facilities, 20 water and sanitation facilities, 183 mosques and three churches have been damaged. Government buildings, including the Palestinian parliament in Gaza, have been damaged or destroyed. Keep scrolling to see some of those buildings.
The war has been challenging for the IDF. Thousands of Hamas terrorists are hiding among the civilian population and in Gaza’s extensive tunnel network. Under these conditions, Israel has chosen to use heavy firepower: It has dropped 30,000 bombs from the air on the enclave. The ground operation has also applied massive firepower, described as « a grinder » or « an elephant herd. » The combination of the number of bombs, their size and the population density has made the war especially lethal. More than 27,000 people have been killed and about 67,000 wounded, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. These figures do not distinguish between Hamas terrorists and non-combatants. The authorities in Gaza note that 70 percent of those killed are women and children.
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One of the many well-known sites hit by bombing is Palestine Square in Gaza City. Scroll down to see it.
2023January 10, 2024
Haaretz examined up-to-date satellite photos of the Gaza Strip taken by Planet Labs, a private earth-imaging company, and compared them with prewar pictures available from open sources such as Google Earth. In common with the work of the American researchers who used satellite signals to identify destruction, this method also shows extensive destruction. For example, the entire eastern part of the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shujaiyeh has been completely razed. This area lies across from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, 1.2 kilometers (less than a mile) from the border.
Shujaiyeh is not the only area to suffer from such massive damage – where entire blocks or adjacent buildings have been leveled – appearing in the satellite imagery that Haaretz has examined. Other areas include Beit Hanoun, the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps, and the towns of Juhor al-Dik, Bani Suheila, and Khirbet Ikhza’a.
The imagery also shows numerous bomb craters and even a huge Star of David that soldiers etched into the ground near Al-Azhar University in Gaza City’s once-upmarket Rimal neighborhood.
The destruction is especially visible in areas the IDF has moved through, such as along the IDF’s southbound entry road into the Strip, parallel to the coast. Extensive destruction is visible in the Madinat al-Awda neighborhood in Gaza City, near the coast and next to the al-Shati refugee camp. As seen here:
The Coastal RoadSalah al-Din RoadCheckpoint
Destruction in northern Gaza CityHotelHigh-risesEducational complexCommunity center and mosque© Planet Labs PBC
CheckpointThe UN said it appears that the IDF used a facial recognition system at the checkpoint, a report corroborated by Palestinians. Buildings in the area have been destroyed. Maxar
January 19, 20242023
The escape route
Israel’s bombing campaign sent hundreds of thousands of people southward. For many Palestinians, fleeing and abandoning their homes felt like a traumatic replay of the 1948 Nakba. The IDF ordered the displaced Gazans to use two roads: Salah al-Din Road and the coastal road.
This is a sample announcement sent to Gaza residents in mid-November: « Today, Monday, the Salah al-Din intersection will open for both foot and vehicle traffic, from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M., for crossing to the south. It is very dangerous to remain in the city. » Not everyone could respond to the IDF’s call. Some Gazans stayed behind due to illness, a lack of gasoline or the need to care for relatives, among other pressing reasons and more. Later in the war, many of them were detained on suspicion of being Hamas terrorists and suffered abuse.
On the way to the checkpoint
Fleeing Gazans said they saw bodies, craters and destruction. Families feared they would be split up. At some point, the army set up a checkpoint on Salah al-Din Road. People fleeing moved toward it, waving their ID cards and white flags against the backdrop of shooting and explosions. A satellite took an image of the site.
November 17, 2023
The road south was packed with displaced people, including families, the sick, the wheelchair-bound, patients on portable hospital beds and newborns. They left on foot and in cars – some of them damaged – and on donkeys and carts. They took what they could carry, including firewood for cooking and heat, because of the severe fuel shortage.
« The Shati refugee camp is burning, » says Khaled Abu Issa, who fled south on Salah al-Din Road in mid-November. « So are all the northern and western parts of Gaza. They [the IDF] are scaring the people so they’ll leave. What we see today is a plan for a second Nakba, » he adds. Another person on the road, Umm Hassan, adds, « What does it look like behind us? Death and destruction. »0:070:190:23
The IDF designated a « humanitarian zone » for Gaza residents in the part of the Strip that is mostly farmland. This area, Muwasi, is where the Israeli settlements known as Gush Katif stood before they were evacuated in 2005.GazaDier al-BalahKhan YunisRafahThe IDF’shumanitarian zoneMuwasi:16 sq. km (6.2 sq. mi)Ben-Gurion Airport:16.5 sq. km (6.3 sq. mi)The humanitarian zone designated by the armyaround the size of Ben-Gurion International Airportis supposed to serve 2.3 million people
The IDF evacuates people to Muwasi
The IDF told Haaretz: « At the start of the war, Israel classified Muwasi as a humanitarian zone for Gaza Strip residents, where humanitarian aid donated by international organizations would be sent, including food, water, medical equipment and shelter. » But an aid source told Haaretz that the fighting hindered the delivery of goods – and that aid staff have no interest in sending aid there; they say that aid should go to the most needy wherever they are and should not be used as an incentive to encourage Gazans to leave their homes. But there is a bigger problem with Muwasi: Compared to the size of the population, it is minuscule.
With no refuge in Muwasi, Gazans fleeing the north scattered across the south. The fighting and bombing followed them, as did the orders to evacuate. For example, in mid-December, the army’s Arabic-language spokesman ordered the evacuation of an area in central Gaza, in which 150,000 people used to live. The announcement said they should move south.
Many of the displaced reached Khan Yunis, the largest city in southern Gaza. But bombs fell there too, and IDF ground forces entered the city, claiming it to be a stronghold of the Hamas leadership. In late January, the IDF ground operation greatly expanded in the city and reached its western side. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit published instructions for more evacuations, and many displaced people now headed farther south. The IDF announced that it was surrounding the city. The heavy fighting is reflected in the American researchers’ latest maps of destruction; they said in their January update that, according to the satellite images, « Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis appear to have the greatest amount of new likely damage. »
The satellite images of Khan Yunis examined by Haaretz also show completely flattened areas east of the city. In the city center, many buildings are still standing, but the damage is immense. For example, see the following photo:
Extensive destruction in Khan YunisCity hall© Planet Labs PBC
UN compoundTents for displaced peopleRafahTents for displaced people© Planet Labs PBC
January 19, 20242023
Escaping to tent cities
The fighting in Khan Yunis is driving Gazans to flee once again, to Rafah on the Egyptian border, joining others who arrived there earlier in the war. Huge tent cities for displaced people have appeared in and around the city. Keep scrolling to see one of them.
2023January 14, 2024
Growing density and an insoluble problem
Before the war, the Rafah governorate had 275,000 residents, a number that has now reached 1.3 million, the UN says. The population density has surged from 4,100 people per square kilometer to over 19,600. A senior UN official said that displaced people are living in streets flowing with sewage in « conditions of desperation conducive to a complete breakdown in order. » Hamas leaders may be hiding in the area, where tunnels also lead into Egypt. The IDF has a plan to enter Rafah, and the decision if it should do so lies with Israel’s political leaders. The UN notes that an overspill of the conflict into Rafah would have severe implications for the population. The IDF declined to comment on where Palestinians in Rafah could go if it launched a major military operation there.
Amid the failing sanitation, diseases are spreading rapidly in the tent cities, and babies are being born into squalor. No one has access to education and the healthcare system is collapsing. Perhaps most importantly, the high death toll and mass displacement are causing family bonds and the wider social structure itself to collapse. Hunger is also spreading, especially in the north. Aid organizations describe a humanitarian catastrophe, and senior UN aid officials warn Gaza is becoming uninhabitable.
The war is still raging across the Strip as the devastation continues. Rebuilding destroyed housing units will cost at least $15 billion, according to a recent estimate by the chairman of the Palestinian Investment Fund, Mohammad Mustafa. Taking into account the huge sums needed for reconstruction, the lack of governance, the uncertainty about Gaza’s political future, Israeli restrictions on the entry of building materials to Gaza and obstacles posed by the Israeli extreme right, reconstruction of the Strip will take years. The war has created a new strategic reality: Many of the 1.7 million displaced Palestinians, even if they are allowed to go back after the war, have nowhere to return to.
The IDF’s response
« The Hamas terrorist organization systematically places its operatives and military assets in the heart of the civilian population, fights from within the civilian environment, and uses civilians as human shields. Hamas’ use of the civilian environment is both massive and unprecedented; entire neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, sometimes all of their buildings, have been converted into combat zones.
« Hamas systematically also uses public buildings that are supposed to be used for civilian purposes, including government buildings, educational institutions, medical institutions and religious buildings. The terrorist organization also operates inside areas that the IDF has classified as humanitarian zones, actions that the IDF must respond to. The destruction of Hamas’ military capabilities includes operational needs to destroy or attack buildings where the terrorist organization has placed combat infrastructure.
« Different targets require different weapons, and regarding particular targets – for example, the network of military tunnels – it is sometimes necessary to use heavy arms to neutralize them. Even when larger bombs are used, measures are taken to minimize possible damage to the civilian population. The IDF is committed to international law and obeys it and the values of the IDF. »
Methodology
The damage map is based on an analysis of data from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Programme Sentinel 1 satellite. The data was analyzed by Corey Scher of the CUNY Graduate Center in New York and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, specialists in the satellite analysis of conflict zones.
The data is collected by analyzing signals sent to the Earth’s surface that return to the satellite. The researchers identify built-up areas from which they receive a stable signal. The satellite notes a change in the returning signal, indicating if there has been a change in the buildings, which during wartime is attributed to the fighting.
Using this method, the researchers identify ‘likely damage affected areas.’ They explained that ‘damage’ might be total destruction, partial damage, such as damage to a building’s exterior wall, or various levels of collateral damage, caused for example by debris.
The researchers told Haaretz that they instruct their algorithm to remove the locations of compounds for displaced people where tents are built, so that they will not appear as a change reflecting damage. In addition, for damage to appear on the map it must register as a continuous change in the signal received by the satellite, not a transient change. When a pixel in which a strong signal for destruction was received, it was colored in the map. The data does not include damage to agricultural areas.
To build trust in their method, the researchers compared their findings to findings published by the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) in earlier stages of the war. The UN’s estimate is based on a different method, in which satellite imagery from different dates is compared to detect damage. The U.S. researchers said they found high agreement between the two methods at that stage of the war. The UN’s latest report, mentioned in this story and available here, refers to the period ending at the beginning of January and presents a lower estimate than the U.S. researchers. The damage map in this story includes damage data for the whole of January as well, and the researchers noted to Haaretz that their method allows them to detect damage to buildings not visible in the method used by the UN.
Harel Dan, an expert on remote sensing and satellite imagery, whom Haaretz consulted for this article, says wartime conditions affect the results obtained by the various satellite methods. He adds that a verification of the precise amount of damage will only be possible after examining conditions on the ground after the war and comparing them thoroughly with the prewar situation. The American researchers also emphasize this limitation and say that full verification requires a specific examination of each building by engineers.
Opening video: Destruction in northern Gaza City. Lower video: Experiences of displaced people on Salah al-Din Road (Credit: Reuters). Baseline satellite map: Google Earth. Photo of bombing in Gaza City: Fatima Shbair/AP
Digital project manager: Uri Talshir. Design: Idit Frenkel. Development: Asi Oren
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