Six months after October 7th
How the war against Hamas is devastating the Gaza Strip
By Martin Morcinek
April 6, 2024, 12:22 p.m
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The war in the Gaza Strip has been raging for six months now: after six months of constant shelling, the densely populated coastal area resembles a huge desert of rubble. The traces of the military offensive can be seen even from space, as current satellite photos show.
The war was triggered by a brutal attack: in the early morning hours of October 7, 2023 – six months ago – commandos from the radical Islamic Hamas organization broke through the Israeli border fortifications in a concerted action in dozens of places at the same time.
Rocket volleys attacked Israeli cities, while at the same time Hamas fighters armed with assault rifles on motorcycles advanced deep into the Israeli hinterland to “kill or take as many people hostage as possible,” according to a discovered notebook belonging to a Hamas terrorist . It quickly became clear: Israel would respond to this attack. There has been war in the Middle East ever since.
How has the situation in the Gaza Strip changed since then? Images from European Earth observation satellites indicate widespread devastation. A before and after comparison shows the approximate extent of the war damage on the ground. The left satellite photo – taken in the infrared spectrum – shows the situation in the Gaza Strip on September 27th, ten days before the start of the war.
The picture on the right, on the other hand, is from April 2nd. Intact vegetation appears in red in the false-color photos, while built-up areas appear in dark gray. Debris and freshly leveled surfaces stand out clearly in lighter colors. In several places, the Israeli military’s wide supply routes run through the densely built-up coastal strip. Like wide corridors, they divide the combat area into several zones.
The first impressions from space coincide with the results of the satellite-based damage analysis. Since the first weeks of the war, US researchers led by Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek have been evaluating Sentinel-1 images from the European Copernicus program to trace the ongoing destruction.
The results are shocking: after almost six months of constant shelling, large parts of the Gaza Strip are in ruins. All urban areas in which the satellite eyes have identified a damaged or even destroyed building are highlighted in red on the map. It is clear that the fighting has long since fully affected the south of the Gaza Strip.
View from space: The Gaza Strip on the day of the major attack around midday on October 7, 2023 (the course of the border fence highlighted).
(Photo: © ESA / Sentinel Hub)
The human suffering can only be glimpsed from a distance. The war triggered by Hamas is hitting the Palestinian population hard. For six months, the approximately 2.3 million residents in the coastal region, which is a good 40 kilometers long and only around six kilometers wide, have been living in a hopeless situation under constant fire.
Street by street, house by house
A quick end to the war is not yet in sight. The first phase of the Israeli ground offensive focused primarily on the north. Shortly after the start of the war, the residents of Gaza City were asked to flee south via the Wadi Gaza river. Israeli soldiers then combed house by house in search of Hamas supporters.
In phase two of the military operation, an Israeli advance from the east towards the coast separated the Gaza Strip in two parts. The siege of the Shifa Hospital, which the Israelis suspect is an important Hamas base, began. Phase three of the offensive brought the Israeli attack on Khan Yunis. Israeli troops recently advanced on the city of Rafah.
High-resolution satellite photo: Entire apartment blocks around the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City are in ruins.
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa/Maxar Technologies/AP)
Here, near the border crossing blocked by Egypt in the far south, almost half of the Palestinian population is now holding out in improvised tent cities. The supply situation is catastrophic. Aid deliveries only reach people in the Gaza Strip sporadically. Above all, there is a lack of food and medicine.
The Israeli military has so far continued to fight its way systematically and according to plan through the densely built-up urban areas in the Gaza Strip. The goal of the ground offensive: the complete destruction of Hamas.