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Bombing of the Gaza Strip

The bombing of the Gaza Strip is an ongoing aerial bombardment campaign on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Air Force during the Israel–Hamas war. During the bombing, Israeli airstrikes damaged Palestinian refugee camps, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, and civilian infrastructure.

Israel faced accusations of war crimes due to the large number of civilian casualties and the large percentage of civilian infrastructure destroyed. In its defense, Israel stated that it utilized a wide-scale evacuation notification system, and claimed that its targets were used by Hamas. By January 2024, researchers at Oregon University and the City University of New York estimated that as much as 62 percent of all buildings in the Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed.

Background

Israel's bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip began within hours of Hamas militants and their allies entering into Israel. In prior conflicts — such as the 2014 Gaza War — Israel damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of buildings. Rebuilding costs in prior conflicts have estimated to range in the billions of dollars.

The attacks

Medical facilities

On 22 October, Israeli airplanes bombed the areas around the Al Shifa and Al Quds hospitals on a night described as the "bloodiest" of the conflict so far. On 29 October, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed the area around the Al-Quds hospital. On 30 October, Israel bombed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital. On 3 November, the Health Ministry stated 136 paramedics had been killed, and 25 ambulance vehicles had been destroyed. On the same day, Israel bombed a medical convoy outside of al-Shifa hospital. The IDF claimed the ambulance was being used by Hamas, leading Queen's University professor Ardi Imseis to state Israel needed to prove its claim. On 6 November, at least eight people died in airstrikes on the Nasser Medical Complex.

Refugee camps

On 23 October, airstrikes killed 436 people in the Al-Shati camp and southern Khan Younis in one night. By 28 October, the Israeli Air Force bombed residential buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp without any prior warning, killing an estimated 50 people per hour. On 31 October, an airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp was described as a "massive massacre". On 13 November, an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp killed thirty people, with Gaza's civil defence team unable to rescue injured people from the rubble due to a lack of equipment. By 6 March 2024, aerial footage showed that the Al-Shati refugee camp, which had been one of the world's most densely populated areas before the war, was in complete ruins.

Schools

An airstrike at a UNRWA school killed at least six people. On 18 October, the Ahmed Abdel Aziz School in Khan Yunis was hit. On 3 November, the IDF bombed the Osama Ben Zaid school. On 4 November, Israel bombed the Al-Fakhoora school, killing at least fifteen people. On 5 November, Israel bombed and destroyed Al-Azhar University.

On 17 November, dozens were reported killed after an airstrike on al-Falah School in the Zeitoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City. A strike on the Al-Fakhoora school reportedly killed at least 50. Deaf, blind, and intellectually handicapped individuals were at particular risk of death by airstrikes. On 13 December, a UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike.

Infrastructure

On 16 October, Israeli airstrikes destroyed a UNRWA humanitarian aid supply depot. The same day, airstrikes destroyed the headquarters of the Palestinian Civil Defence, an agency responsible for emergency response services, including firefighting and search and rescue. Journalists reported Israel was targeting solar panels and personal generators. On 15 November, Gaza's last remaining flour mill was hit by an Israeli airstrike.

On 12 November, Israel used earthquake bombs on an apartment complex in Khan Yunis, killing at least thirteen people. 26 people were killed in an airstrike of a residential building in southern Gaza on 18 November. By 28 November, the United Nations (UN) estimated 60 percent of all housing in Gaza had been destroyed. Numerous casualties were reported in an airstrike on a residential building near Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, with hospital staff reporting having to bury 40 bodies on the hospital grounds. On 4 February, two residential towers in Rafah were bombed, part of a series of strikes killing 127 people. 104 people were killed between 21 and 23 February in residential building airstrikes conducted without prior warning. In March 2024, a man in Gaza City described the situation there, stating, "Destruction on a massive scale, beyond any description. Our homes were destroyed. Nothing remained of our property".

Places of worship

On 19 October, an Israeli airstrike hit the Church of Saint Porphyrius, where 500 people were sheltering. On 8 November, Israel bombed and destroyed the Khalid bin al-Walid Mosque. By 13 November 2023, at least sixty mosques had been destroyed by Israeli bombs. In December 2023, an Israeli bombing destroyed the Great Mosque of Gaza. At least seven people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Rafah mosque full of displaced people on 23 February 2024. Five people were killed in a mosque in northern Gaza that was bombed without warning. The al-Riad mosque in Khan Younis was heavily damaged by an Israeli bombing on 9 March 2024. By 10 March 2024, more than 1,000 mosques had been destroyed by Israeli attacks.

Safe zones

On 17 October, Israel conducted intensive airstrikes in southern Gaza, in areas it told residents to seek refuge. Israel "pounded" areas in south Gaza it had declared as "safe zones", raising fears amongst residents that nowhere was safe. On 20 October, Israeli continued to bombard south Gaza, and IDF spokesman Nir Dinar said, "There are no safe zones". Following Israel's evacuation orders for Palestinians to flee northern Gaza, the IDF intensified its attacks on southern Gaza.

Analyses by CNN, The New York Times, and Sky News all found that Israel had bombed areas it had previously told civilians to evacuate to. The Sky News investigation also concluded that Israel's evacuation orders had been "chaotic and contradictory", NYT found that Israel had dropped 2,000-pound bombs in those areas, while CNN stated it had verified at least three locations Israel bombed after telling civilians it was safe to go there.

On 5 January 2024, evacuees fleeing Israeli attacks in central Gaza stated the situation there was "hell on Earth". One survivor of an Israeli airstrike wrote, "Even though that air strike did not kill us, it destroyed something inside us." On 12 January, the UN Secretary-General for Human Rights stated that at least 319 internally displaced persons were killed and 1,135 injured by Israeli airstrikes while sheltering in UN shelters. After an Israeli bomb killed two sheltering in a tent in Deir el-Balah on 23 February 2024, a surviving family member stated, "It's just a tent. They are displaced and evacuated from the north here to seek refuge. They were sleeping. Why were they attacked? Even in tents, we are not safe." After a bombing on tents in Rafah killed eleven people, Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated it was "outrageous and unspeakable".

Missing persons

On 15 October, more than 1,000 people were reported missing beneath rubble. On 27 October, the World Health Organization stated more than 1,000 unidentified people were buried under rubble. On 3 December 2023, the Palestinian Civil Defence stated the situation "beyond dire" as the organization was unable to rescue many people buried under rubble. Individuals were rescued by aid workers after reportedly surviving several days buried underneath rubble. Emergency responders stated that part of what made rescue so difficult is that Israeli bombs tend to "flatten entire buildings". On 24 February, Dr. Paul B. Spiegel stated that total death counts were undercounts due to the large number of people under rubble, stating, "We projected the number of deaths that may be missing, and it was probably up to about ten to fifteen per cent more." On 26 February 2024, Israeli warplanes bombed and destroyed an emergency rescue machinery in Beit Lahia. According to The New York Times, "The buried make up a shadow death toll in Gaza, a leaden asterisk to the health ministry’s official tally of more than 31,000 dead".

AI-assisted targeting

During the bombing campaign, Israel used artificial intelligences to determine what targets the Air Force would bomb. A system known as Habsora, "the Gospel", would automatically provide a targeting recommendation to a human analyst, who'd decide whether to pass it along to soldiers in the field. The recommendations can be anything from individual fighters, rocket launchers, Hamas command posts, to private homes of suspected Hamas or Islamic Jihad members. This would automate most of the target selection process.

NPR cited Anthony King, professor of defense and security studies at the University of Exeter, as saying this may be the first time AI-generated targets are being rolled out on a large scale to try and influence a military operation.

Timeline

October 2023

15 October: In the war's first week, Israel dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Gaza.
16 October: Airstrikes had killed 2,750 people, including more than 700 children, and wounded nearly 10,000.
18 October: The death toll in Gaza had risen to 3,478.
19 October: U.S. officials reported alarm at Israeli comments about the "inevitability" of civilian casualties and reminders about "civilian deaths from the U.S. atomic bombs" in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
21 October: Israel intensified its airstrikes in advance of an expected ground invasion.
26 October: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu stated Israel had "already eliminated thousands of terrorists – and this is only the beginning".

November 2023

17 November: Historian Raghu Karnad cited reports that Israel had dropped 25,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza since the beginning of the conflict, stating this was the equivalent of two nuclear bombs.
20 November: Satellite imagery showed half of Northern Gaza had been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.
24 November: Israel intensified strikes across Gaza before the temporary November ceasefire.
26 November: Israel had dropped an estimated 40,000 tons of explosives on Gaza since the start of the war.

December 2023

1 December: In the hours following the end of the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, 109 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes.
2 December: The IDF stated it had struck at least 400 locations in Gaza since the pause had ended, including 50 in Khan Younis in Southern Gaza.
3 December: 700 were reported killed in the preceding twenty-four hours.
8 December: 350 people were killed in the preceding twenty-four hours.
9 December: the Palestinian Civil Defence stated it only had one operational rescue vehicle left in the entirety of Northern Gaza.

January 2024

6 January: More than 85% of Palestinians in Gaza, or around 1.9 million people, were internally displaced.
14 January: Israel's offensive had either damaged or destroyed 70–80% of all buildings in northern Gaza.
30 January: At least half of all buildings in the entirety of Gaza had been destroyed or damaged.

February 2024

1 February: The New York Times estimated that at least half of Gaza's buildings had been damaged or destroyed.
2 February: UNOSAT, the UN's satellite centre, found that 69,147 structures, or approximately 30 percent of Gaza's total buildings, had been damaged or destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and demolitions.
6 February: Israeli bombing campaigns intensified in Central Gaza, as displaced people in Rafah grew fearful of an impending Israeli attack on the city.

March 2024

2 March: Zeitoun, one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Gaza before the war, was in ruins, with one resident calling it "destruction on a massive scale beyond any description".
4 March: An F-16 bombed and destroyed a cemetery in the Jabalia refugee camp.
15 March: UNOCHA estimated that there were 23 million tonnes of debris in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel's bombing campaign, which would take several years to clear.
21 March: UNOSAT stated 88,868 structures, or 35% of buildings in Gaza, had been destroyed or damaged.
31 March: The Wall Street Journal reported on a U.S. government memorandum indicating there is a lack of independent oversight to ensure U.S. intelligence is not used for airstrikes to kill civilians or damage infrastructure.

May 2024

3 May: The United Nations Mine Action Service estimated there were 37 million tonnes of debris containing around 800,000 tonnes of asbestos and other contaminants, and 7,500 tonnes of unexploded ordnance, which could take up to 14 years to clear.

Rebuilding

The Financial Times estimated it would cost billions to rebuild Gaza. Mohammed Mustafa, the chief economist of the Palestine Investment Fund, estimated rebuilding Gaza's homes alone would cost around US$15 billion. The World Bank and the United Nations estimated in April 2024 that the war had caused $18.5 billion dollars worth of damage to Gaza's infrastructure thus far. In May 2024, the United Nations Development Program stated it would take at least until 2040 to rebuild the homes destroyed in Gaza.

Reactions

The Financial Times described northern Gaza as a "bombed-out wasteland", and Palestinians feared northern Gaza was becoming uninhabitable. Israel's bombing was described as "unlike any other in the 21st century."

On 6 January 2024, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths stated that Gaza had "simply become uninhabitable". James Elder, the UNICEF spokesman, stated, "I have never seen such devastation. Just chaos and ruin, with rubble and debris scattered in every single direction."

The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell stated Israel's objective appeared to be making Gaza "temporarily or permanently impossible to live in". Mary Robinson, the former-president of the Republic of Ireland and leader of The Elders, called on the United States to cease providing bombs to Israel, stating, "Netanyahu is on the wrong side of history, completely".

Analysis

Historian Robert Pape stated, "Gaza will also go down as a place name denoting one of history's heaviest conventional bombing campaigns." Scholars termed the destruction of Gaza a domicide, leading the UN special rapporteur on the right to housing to argue that international law should be amended to consider domicide a war crime. Israel's airstrikes were described as a carpet bombing and "indiscriminate". An US intelligence report found half of the bombs dropped on Gaza had been unguided bombs. Experts stated the bombing campaign against Gaza had been the deadliest and most destructive in modern history, with Corey Scher of the CUNY Graduate Center stating, "Gaza is now a different color from space." The Wall Street Journal termed Israel's bombing the "most devastating urban warfare in the modern record".

According to analysis by Humanity & Inclusion, approximately 45,000 bombs were dropped on the Gaza Strip in the conflict's first three months, but with a 9% to 14% failure rate, several thousand unexploded bombs lay amongst the ruins. The United Nations Mine Action Service estimated that there was more rubble in Gaza (25 miles long) than in all of Ukraine (600 miles long), with the rubble in Gaza likely "heavily contaminated" by unexploded ordnance.

War crimes

A group of UN special rapporteurs asserted that Israel's airstrikes are indiscriminate, stating that the airstrikes are "absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime". Israeli military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said that "while balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we’re focused on what causes maximum damage". A +972 Magazine investigation found the IDF had expanded authorization for bombing non-military targets. Research conducted by Dr. Yagil Levy at the Open University of Israel confirmed the +972 report, which stated Israel was "deliberately targeting residential blocks to cause mass civilian casualties".

During two airstrikes on 10 October and 22 October, the IDF used Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) in attacks described by Amnesty International as "either direct attacks on civilians" or "indiscriminate attacks". Marc Garlasco, a war crimes investigator, stated a JDAM bomb "turns earth to liquid". On 12 January 2024, the spokesperson for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights stated Israel's attacks were failing to account for distinction, proportionality and precautions, thus leaving Israeli exposed to liability for war crimes.

In February 2024, the IDF bombed and destroyed the Belgian government's Gaza development office. In response, Belgium recalled the Israeli ambassador and condemned the "destruction of civilian infrastructure" as a violation of international law. Scott Lucas, a professor at the University of Birmingham, stated Israel's bombing campaign was in breach of the law of proportionality.

Aftermath

The bombardment left behind a large amount of debris, including unexploded ordnance. An official from United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), has said it could take up to 14 years to remove the debris, including the rubble of destroyed buildings. The war left an estimated 37 million tons of debris in a widely urbanized, densely populated area.

Notes

References

Text submitted to CC-BY-SA license. Source: Bombing of the Gaza Strip by Wikipedia (Historical)

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