This is what’s left of Gaza after a year of war between Israel and Hamas: NPR

Within hours of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel began airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. On October 27, the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza began, and within a few days the Israeli army surrounded Gaza City. In the months that followed, the war in Gaza continued unabated and resulted in one of the most devastating humanitarian crises in recent decades, as nearly two million residents fled the onslaught of bombing, demolition and war.

The Hamas-led attack on October 7 last year killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 individuals hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military response since then in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The risk of famine in Gaza is widespread.

The scope of the conflict has expanded: Hezbollah in Lebanon began firing missiles at Israel on October 8, 2023, leading to a recent intensification of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and the hostilities have drawn in Iran and militias in Yemen and Iraq. A ceasefire was not reached.

After a year of war, here’s what’s left of the Gaza Strip.

Infrastructure damage

A year of Israeli air strikes and demolitions has reduced Gaza to rubble. It is estimated that approximately 60% of the buildings in the enclave were damaged or destroyed, according to an analysis of satellite data by Corey Scher of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Jamon van den Hoek of Oregon State University.

By the beginning of 2024, 71% of buildings in Gaza City and 67% of buildings in North Gaza were damaged or destroyed. This devastation then followed the Israeli campaign against Hamas, as forces moved south, where Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis and finally Rafah saw a steady increase in Israeli bombing and clearance operations.

The Israeli military says it has struck more than 40,000 targets from the air, dismantled more than 1,000 rocket launchers, and located about 4,700 Hamas tunnels as of September 25.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Reports 87% of schools in Gaza have been bombed with munitions or damaged since the beginning of the conflict.

In May, Palestinian civil defense authorities estimated that up to 10,000 people They may be buried under rubble throughout the enclave. These people, who are presumed dead, are not included in the casualty figures published by the Gaza Ministry of Health.

The more than 37 million metric tons of debris includes more than 800,000 metric tons of asbestos and 7,500 metric tons of unexploded ordnance, according to UN estimates.

Adding to the chaos, Gaza’s roads are becoming increasingly impassable. that analysis Estimates issued by the United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT) on September 4 indicate that 68% of the roads in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, repeatedly impeding the movement of millions of displaced people, as well as ambulances and relief organizations working in the Strip.

This damage includes demolition operations carried out by the Israeli army along two strategic corridors, the Philadelphia Corridor bordering Egypt and the Netzarim Corridor, which divides the area south of Gaza City.

Agricultural damage

Before the war, nearly a quarter of the land in Gaza was covered by orchards, crops and greenhouses, according to He Yin, head of the Remote Sensing and Land Science Laboratory at Kent State University.

Yin has closely studied agriculture in the Gaza Strip over the past year. Olives, citrus fruits, flowers and vegetables grew in abundance there. After a year of war, 70% of greenhouses and nearly 70% of tree crops were damaged or destroyed, according to Yin’s analysis of high-resolution satellite images of the area. Tree crops include citrus, olives and other orchard trees. It does not include natural trees or shrubs.

“agriculture [in Gaza] “It has economic value, but it is also a cultural symbol,” says Yin. Many Gazans were forced to cut down their olive and citrus trees to make firewood to bake bread and boil water.

Before this war, about 90% of farmers in Gaza worked on less than half an acre of land, according to A 2017 report From the non-profit American Refugee Aid in the Near East. Others had small plots of land for home gardens next to their homes. Losing a single tree can be devastating.

“No matter what type of tree crop it is, it takes years before you have a crop,” Yin says. “So, even if the war stops tomorrow, there is no way to get these things back,” he added [trees]”.

Likewise, the loss of greenhouses will be felt for years to come. Greenhouses typically produce higher value crops, such as seasonal market vegetables.

Humanitarian crisis

The widespread destruction of buildings, roads and agriculture exacerbates the desperate situation facing people across Gaza.

UN reports indicate that 17 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functioning, while the remaining 19 hospitals are out of service, as of October 2. Many local medical personnel have been repeatedly killed, injured or abandoned, making hospital operations increasingly difficult. In August, NPR reported that hundreds of children needing medical treatment were not allowed to evacuate the area, recently leading to the deaths of at least nine children waiting for care.

As the war has extended southward over the past year, very few places remain in Gaza that Israel has designated as safe zones for Palestinian civilians, with the Israeli military putting more and more territory under evacuation orders and carrying out attacks there.

This forced many residents to flee to the narrow coastal strip of Al-Mawasi, which the Israeli army designated as a humanitarian zone. Conditions in this area are increasingly crowded and unsanitary, as family after family seeks a safe place to take shelter from the Israeli invasion.

But this area is not free from Israeli bombing either. In September, an Israeli airstrike hit the humanitarian zone, killing at least 19 people. In July, 90 Palestinians were killed in Al-Mawasi in an Israeli air strike. In both cases, the Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas leaders.

Using only satellite images, Yin can sense the growing desperation in Gaza.

“At first they settled in areas where [were] Yin notes that it is very empty – no one manages that land. “Just barren land and natural fields with shrubs.”

But as safety in Gaza becomes more difficult, he notes that displaced people are finally entering farmland.

“They have to, because there’s not enough space.”

methodology

Damage analysis of data from ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite by Corey Sher From the CUNY Graduate Center Jamon van den Hoek From Oregon State University. Route analysis from UNOSAT Comprehensive road damage assessmentpublished on September 4, 2024, using images collected on August 18, 2024. Tree Crop Damage Analysis by He Yin, Kent State University. The analysis uses 3-meter PlanetScope images, provided by Planet Labs PBC.

Before and after satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC. The borders of the humanitarian zone in Gaza are from Institute for the study of war and American Enterprise Institute Critical Threats Project. Building fingerprints of the global settlement footprint, 2019.

Aya El-Batrawy and Daniel Estrin contributed to this report. Preeti Arun copy edited the story.