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Thursday, March 21, 2024
Satellite images show 35% of Gaza’s buildings damaged or destroyed, UN says
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Satellite images analyzed by the United Nations Satellite Centre show that 35% of the Gaza Strip’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
In its assessment, the United Nations Satellite Centre, UNOSAT, used high-resolution satellite images collected on Feb. 29 and compared them with images taken before and after the start of the war.
It found that 35% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip — 88,868 structures — had been damaged or destroyed.
Among these, it identified 31,198 structures as destroyed, 16,908 as severely damaged, and 40,762 as moderately damaged.
This represents an increase of nearly 20,000 damaged structures compared to the previous assessment it did based on images taken in January, UNOSAT says.
“The governorates of Khan Younis and Gaza have experienced the most significant rise in damage, with Khan Younis seeing 12,279 additional damaged structures and Gaza experiencing 2,010,” UNOSAT says.
“Khan Younis City has been hit particularly hard, with 6,663 newly destroyed structures.”
Israel launched its military campaign after Hamas’s devastating October 7 onslaught, during which some 3,000 terrorists burst into Israel from Gaza, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians.
The Times of Israel Community.