According to an interactive map on the ArcGIS website, which utilizes satellite images, the entire Gaza Strip is marked with red dots alongside other colors such as green, yellow, orange, and gray. These colors illustrate the extensive destruction inflicted on Gaza’s buildings, infrastructure, and agricultural lands. The map suggests that no part of Gaza was spared from the occupation’s relentless shelling, with shells shamelessly weighing 2,000 pounds each, supplied and continuously provided by international allies, notably the United States, disregarding international laws and human rights.
In the year following the operation “Al-Aqsa Flood”, launched by the Palestinian resistance on October 7th, 2023, the Israeli Occupation destroyed approximately 75% of Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure through relentless bombing.
The map highlights the deliberate destruction of entire residential neighborhoods, such as Khan Yunis, Jabalia, and Beit Lahia, marked in green, while Deir Al-Balah, marked in red, was nearly half destroyed, along with other scattered areas in Rafah where displaced Palestinians are now concentrated.
Ambassador Mohamed Al-Orabi, head of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, told “Sout Al-Salam” that the Israeli occupation intentionally renders Gaza “an uninhabited area.” He emphasized that this tactic is part of a systematic policy to force Palestinians off their land, adding that “Scorched Earth” is a known strategy employed by the occupation to compel the steadfast Palestinian people, who have endured for a year, to leave.
Deliberate Methodology … Not “in response”
Al-Orabi, along with the experts we interviewed for this report unanimously agree that the Israeli occupation’s policy is “systematic and deliberate.” While Palestinians resist in defense of their land, the occupation exploits every action to devastate vast areas of land, whether in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, or beyond its direct control. The occupation maintains that it is merely responding to resistance activities, but the past year’s events suggest a clear intention to “annihilate” the Strip, halted only by the resilience of the resistance.
The world was taken by surprise at dawn on October 7th, 2023, when the Palestinian resistance in Gaza launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” a coordinated land, sea and air assault on several settlements in Gaza. In its initial hours, the operation led to the capture of 200 to 250 Israeli soldiers and settlers, according to Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the Palestinian Al-Qassam Brigades. The operation also forced the closure of local airports in central and southern Israel to commercial traffic and resulted in the cancellation of dozens of flights to Tel Aviv via Ben Gurion Airport.
In a single day, the resistance shattered Israel’s long-standing claim of being “invincible.” Within just one month of Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” the occupation forces had destroyed nearly 50% of Gaza’s homes through relentless bombing, as reported by the United Nations Development Program. A map from “Google Earth” platform depicting the destruction shows gray as the dominant color in the most ravaged neighborhoods, indicating extensive rubble and destroyed homes.
The official United Nations website published the ninth update from the United Nations Satellite Center, assessing the damage to buildings in Gaza. It revealed that two-thirds of the buildings in the Strip were damaged, with the report specifying that 66% of the affected structures are in Gaza, totaling approximately 163,000 buildings.
Despite international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights granting the right to “resistance” and acknowledging that “oppressed colonized peoples have the right to liberate themselves from the shackles of control and resort to all means recognized by society,” the Israeli occupation persists in committing violations and attacks against Palestinians, regardless of their location.
Since October 7th, Israel has sought to expand its buffer zone around Gaza settlements, encroaching on Gaza’s territory. Al-Orabi commented on these actions, stating, “the buffer zone policies are part of Israeli plans to divide Gaza into several areas to facilitate control. However, the ultimate outcome remains unclear at this stage, as we are still witnessing uncertain measures on their part.”
Bombing Life in Gaza
A year after the conflict, the infrastructure in the Palestinian sector lay in ruins, with 59% of buildings reduced to rubble, according to American satellite images analyzed by researchers Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek, equivalent to approximately 169,000 buildings.
Ahmed Omar, an Egyptian engineer and founder of the “Ain” initiative - Architecture for Humanity, told “Sout Al-Salam” that the Israeli occupation aims to “strike the backbone of life inside the Gaza Strip.” He explained, “in the first days of the war, occupation forces bombed the main electricity station in the Strip to cut off a basic service for the population, and then targeted the social fabric by bombing mosques, churches, and sports clubs, dismantling social life. Notably, the “Khaled bin Al-Waleed” Mosque in Khan Yunis, a community hub offering activities for all age groups, was also bombed.”
The Palestinian News Agency reports that the occupation destroyed 25,000 kilometers of electricity, water, and sewage networks, roads, and streets. This destruction is described as “intentional and part of a well-thought-out plan,” adding that, “the occupation deliberately destroyed 70 water wells, putting them completely out of service, making access to water in Gaza a significant and challenging issue.”
Omar highlighted that the occupation’s strategy then targeted vital areas for the civilians, such as homes, workplaces, markets, roads, schools, and universities, to disrupt all aspects of life and force the population to displace. According to a United Nations report, 84% of hospitals and health facilities were destroyed, and the education system collapsed, with 100% of children out of school.
Furthermore, Omar pointed out that the bombing extended to Gaza’s ancient heritage, deliberately violating Palestinian cultural heritage. UNESCO announced that 69 sites have been damaged since October 7th, 2023, due to Israeli bombing, including 10 religious sites, 43 buildings of historical and/or artistic importance, warehouses of movable cultural property, 6 archeological monuments, one museum, and 7 archeological sites, along with the destruction of 90% of the eastern border.
The occupation also exploited the conflict to seize and destroy Palestinian agricultural lands under the guise of security and military reasons. Data from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission revealed that the occupation forced seized 750 dunams (1000 square meters) of agricultural land in the Tubas and Tulkarm governorates and bulldozed neatly 95% of the agricultural land, totaling over 20 dunams, according to the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Organization. They also uprooted more than 600 fruit trees and demolished numerous agricultural facilities and wells in Beit Ola, west of Hebron – Al-Khalil.
Additionally, occupation forces destroyed all agricultural lands along the security fence separating the eastern and northern Gaza Strip at a depth of approximately two kilometers, amounting to about 96 square kilometers, in an attempt to annex them to the buffer zone in violation of international law. This, combined with approximately 3 square kilometers used for a road and buffer zone separating Gaza from its center along the Netzarim axis, represents about 27.5% of Gaza’s total area.
Recurrent Methodology
In his book “I Saw Ramallah,” Mourid Barghouti poignantly states, “we did not lose Palestine in a game of logic, we lost it through coercion and force.” Israel’s ongoing violations, bolstered by an American “Veto” and protection from other nations, is a longstanding issue. A time-based geographic map on the “Google Earth” platform illustrates the period of the second Palestinian Intifada (uprise) from 2000 to 2005, with areas of destruction marked in gray – neighborhoods that occupation forces have also targeted this year.
The Israeli occupation used the Palestinian Intifada to construct a wall that annexed 11 Palestinian villages and replicated similar violations, including the Gaza Strip siege, depriving Palestinians of essential services, and seizing village resources, stealing their wells and bulldozing lands. According to the Palestinian news agency “WAFA,” the occupation has appropriated 50 groundwater wells yielding 7 million cubic meters of water, bulldozed nearly 74,000 dunams (1000 square meters) of agricultural land, and uprooted 1.2 million trees since the Intifada.
The decision to erect the separation wall in April 2001 aimed to segregate the Gaza Strip from other Palestinian territories. The wall spans 712 kilometers in the West Bank and approximately 202 kilometers around Jerusalem, isolating 43% of the area, signaling the advent of apartheid and the expropriation of Palestinian lands and infrastructure.
Ayman Raqb, Professor of Political Science at Al-Quds University and an eyewitness to both the Intifada and the events of October 7th, shares with “Sout Al-Salam” the unprecedented nature of this year’s developments in the Palestinian conflict. He observed that Israel is expanding its Scorched Earth policy to obliterate entire residential blocks and neighborhoods, especially given the lack of international intervention. “What we are witnessing this year is unprecedented, even compared to the Second Intifada, indicating that this time the occupation aims to control the Gaza Strip,” he noted.
Raqb further stated that the occupation has deployed internationally banned weapons to bomb civilians and neighborhoods, with each missile weighing 2,000 pounds, supplied by the United States. He remarked that some neighborhoods appear as if they have been hit by a nuclear bomb, reflecting the magnitude of the destruction.
The Cost of Rebuilding Gaza
The estimated cost of rebuilding Gaza is projected to reach 50 billion USD. A report by the World Banks and the United Nations estimates the damage to vital infrastructure in Gaza at 18.5 billion USD, equivalent to 87% of the combined GDP of the West Banks and Gaza Strip in 2022.
“Sout Al-Salam” interviewed Omar Salim, an Egyptian Engineer and member of the Arab International Reconstruction Authority in Palestine. Salim explained that reconstruction costs are estimated to range between 50 and 80 billion USD. Major challenges include removing approximately 43 million tons of rubble and rebuilding essential infrastructure such as roads and hospitals.
Salim noted that the cost of debris removal alone amounts to 700 million USD, considering the extensive damage to 45,000 housing units and numerous educational and health facilities. He highlighted that 72% of the buildings were either completely or partially destroyed, rendering the reconstruction process complex and lengthy.
Reflecting on the past, Salim mentioned that the cost of reconstruction following the 2014 war was around 8 billion USD, “while the cost of rebuilding after the Second Intifada was significantly lower and did not reach such substantial figures.”
Currently, a year later, residents of the Strip find themselves confined to a small geographical area in the Palestinian Rafah, visualizing their homes, streets, lands, and memories reduced to rubble. The constant image of the bombings or the pain of losing loved ones never fades from their memory. Their connection to the Strip, from which they were uprooted since October 7th, remains severed. However, they continue to resist because they are “the rightful owners of the land.”
