Nearly four months after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, at least half of all buildings are now in ruins and ash. The analysis of satellite data is said to show that 144,000 and 175,000 buildings have now been damaged or destroyed. That is between 50 and 61 percent of all buildings in the coastal area.
The images also show that the bombardment of the southern and central Gaza Strip has intensified since early December, with the hotly contested city of Khan Younis in the south of the coastal area particularly hard hit. The BBC reports this after evaluating satellite data.
Residential areas throughout the Gaza Strip were destroyed
Israel repeatedly emphasizes that it is at war with the Islamist Hamas and not with civilians. Hamas fighters used civilian buildings to attack, store weapons and hide entrances to underground tunnels. Across the Gaza Strip, residential areas have been destroyed, once-busy shopping streets reduced to rubble, universities destroyed and farmland disturbed, the BBC reported.
The satellite images were analyzed at the City University of New York and Oregon State University. Older and current images were compared to identify changes in the height or structure of buildings that indicated damage.
Thousands of people flee to Rafah
The town of Khan Younis, considered a Hamas stronghold, has been particularly affected in recent weeks, the report said. The analysis showed that more than 38,000 or more than 46 percent of the buildings there have now been destroyed or damaged. According to the UN, thousands of people have fled to Rafah. More than 1.3 million people, more than half of the approximately 2.2 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, now reside there.
Source: Krone
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