In the weeks since Israel announced plans to take over Gaza City, the Israeli military has destroyed or damaged more than 1,800 buildings in and around the city, CNN analysis has found.
Satellite imagery taken by Planet Labs on September 5 shows large-scale demolitions, mostly of residential buildings, when compared to imagery taken August 9, a day after Israel approved its new offensive.
Most of the destruction appears concentrated in the Zeitoun area, south of the city center. In early September, the Israeli military pulled out of the neighborhood and blew up a school it had been using as a base.
Between August 9 and August 17, the Israeli military also demolished parts of Al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, where thousands of displaced Palestinians have been sheltering.
Just north of Gaza City in Jabalya, the Israeli military has also leveled more than 750 buildings, according to CNN’s analysis.
A half-dozen satellite images taken between August 9 and September 5 also show that a vast majority of the destruction has been caused not by airstrikes or combat, but by the Israeli military slowly carrying out block by block demolitions with excavators and bulldozers.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military ordered all Palestinian civilians to leave Gaza City and “all its neighborhoods,” ahead of a major expanded military offensive, prompting widespread fears of yet worse to come.
Israel insists that seizing Gaza City is key to defeating Hamas and has said its military is targeting members of the militant group and “terrorist infrastructure” in areas including Zeitoun and Jabalya. Israel now claims to control of about 40% of the enclave’s largest city.
An image taken on August 19 shows Israeli excavators and bulldozers demolishing buildings in Zeitoun. Twenty-four hours later, another image shows them 300 meters (328 yards) further into the neighborhood, leaving behind 26 more demolished buildings and the heavy machinery tracks that have become a defining feature of Gaza’s landscape.
On August 25, at least 16 excavators are visible at the IDF’s Zeitoun base, with ongoing demolitions taking place nearby.
But even before the Israeli security cabinet announced the plans for its Gaza City offensive, the destruction was already visible and profound.
CNN joined the Royal Jordanian Airforce as aid was airdropped into the Gaza Strip on August 7, where, viewed from the air, entire neighborhoods appeared as if they had been pounded into a pile of rubble.
Israel does not allow international journalists to enter the Gaza Strip to report independently. CNN relies on Palestinian journalists inside Gaza to document the destruction on the ground.
Gaza City had been the area least scarred by Israel’s nearly two-year offensive, with much of its infrastructure seen still intact in CNN’s aerial footage and earlier satellite images. Since then, many buildings that appeared still to be standing have been completely flattened.
Around the perimeter of Gaza City, rows of tents that were used for shelter have completely disappeared in just a matter of weeks.
Due to the large-scale demolitions, displaced Palestinians in Gaza City have been forcibly displaced again, as the threat of the full Israeli invasion looms. But many say there is not enough space to accommodate more makeshift shelters.
Twenty-four-year-old Iman Irhim fled with her 4-year-old daughter and husband from Zeitoun towards the coast, west of Gaza City, but refuses to move south.
“If you utter the world ‘displacement’ to any Palestinian in Gaza now, tears will stream down their face. The cost of displacement is heavy and high, it’s like carrying the weight of a mountain on your shoulders,” she told CNN in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Like most Palestinians in Gaza, she has been forcibly displaced by Israeli military operations several times before and cited safety fears and the exorbitant amount of money it would cost to transport her belongings as reasons for remaining in the north.
“I don’t believe it is safe in the south. It’s a ruse; we’re moving from danger to danger, death to death. I would rather stay in the north and risk airstrikes over going through the experience of displacement again,” she added.
The military has also been targeting and destroying high-rise buildings surrounding displacement camps, crowding Gaza City’s residents into ever-smaller spaces. The IDF has claimed the towers are used as “terrorist infrastructure ” by Hamas, without providing evidence.
Between September 5 and 8, five high-rise buildings were bombed, according to Mahmoud Basal, Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesman.
“Altogether, they contained 209 apartments, with each apartment sheltering at least 20 people during this state of emergency – that’s more than 4,100 children, women and elderly people left homeless,” he told CNN.
Palestinians in Gaza City are facing further mass displacement at the same time as starvation conditions spread through the densely-populated city.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found last month that a “man-made” famine has already been confirmed in the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City, adding that the situation is expected to worsen after months of relentless conflict.
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned that an Israeli escalation in Gaza City would lead to “more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes.”
Mai Elawawda, a communications officer for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians who is based in central Gaza, told CNN she saw “dozens of people” fleeing to Deir al-Balah from the north following the evacuation orders.
“They don’t have any tents and are just out in the open areas in the streets. Al-Mawasi area is totally filled with people already. The coast is very expensive to find accommodation, and people may not be able to afford to leave their homes in Gaza City to move down to the south and find adequate shelter,” she said.
The most recent comprehensive UN assessment of damage found that around 78% of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed.
