Mapping the Destruction in Gaza from Afar

Davie Loria

In the first year of Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip we saw over 85,000 tons of munitions dropped on Palestinian infrastructure. As of writing this, the reported number of Palestinians injured surpassing 100,000 and lives lost is at least 43,000, though this is very likely a huge underestimation. With over 85% of the total population of Palestine being displaced due to damage from constant bombings and orders of evacuation, there is little to no way to be on the ground in the occupied territory to document the extent of the damage to civilian infrastructure. Due to this difficulty and danger of being on the ground, many researchers have turned to multiple different remote sensing technologies to gather information and map damage effectively while sparing as many lives as possible during research and data collection.

Satellite images of Southern Gaza City and Khan Younis one year apart. From Planet Labs.

Remote sensing can be incredibly helpful for obtaining data in areas where ground investigation isn’t accessible. Researchers may not want to disturb the environment, and in many cases, being on the ground is even dangerous for human life, so options of ground based systems are inviable. In the case of Gaza, it is growing near impossible to have any ground data from people in the area. This has been deemed the deadliest conflict for journalists in Palestine, with 1 in 10 reporters having been killed during the campaign, meaning at least 137 media workers have been killed with 74 arrested by Israeli forces with unlimited detention extension as of writing this. This makes aerial remote sensing methods and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) uniquely capable of providing relevant information for researchers trying to quantify the damage done to limit the people on the ground in the dangerous area. Additionally, gathering data from SAR can limit bias of the numbers from any group or person aligned with one political affiliation—it allows for a transparent and accurate collection of data.

SAR tracks the elevation of objects on surfaces over time, enabling researchers to analyze and compare changes across different periods. A plane or satellite equipped with radar instruments flies over the area, emitting radar waves toward Earth's surface. When these waves reflect back after striking an object, the returned signal provides data about the elevation of the surface or structure at that location. By combining numerous points from multiple scans, researchers can create a detailed digital map of the area, all without physically accessing the ground.

Visuals of how SAR data is gathered and read. From USGS/Public Domain.

Remote sensing has long been used as a data collection method during dangerous conditions. We see this to detect partially or fully buried mines in Ukraine, or wildfires that spread through populated areas of Indonesia. Specifically for the case of the Gaza Strip, one recent paper details how researchers are using SAR imagery to characterize damage done in the first phase of the Israeli military’s campaign to quantify the possibility that the bombings on many critical civilian buildings in the Gaza Strip is by random chance. Mapping this kind of data could lend itself to uncovering the true intent of a party in active combat situations, as this study aims to do in their research.

The goal of the study was to see if there was a correlation between where the munitions are being dropped and their proximity to critical civilian infrastructure. The authors define “critical civilian infrastructure” as: health facilities like hospitals and health centers, education facilities like universities and schools, water facilities like water storage and water access points, and the areas designated as protected evacuation zones. In order to determine this, they first needed to identify where these kinds of infrastructures were located in the first place.

They worked with data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OpenStreetMap, and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team to crosscheck their open-source building footprint locations. Once they knew the locations of all the infrastructure, they could compare it to the data imported from SAR scans of the area. The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places in the world and has a lot of infrastructure, so categorizing it in the study makes it easier to digest.

Distribution of health, education, and water facilities infrastructure sites in the Gaza Strip.
From Asi et al.

To distinguish damaged infrastructure, the study looked at coherence. As they scan the same areas multiple times over, they compare the signals they are getting back to each other. If the signals are very similar, that would correlate to a high coherence. The more the signals change between scans, the lower the coherence gets. If the coherence is stable, that indicates no change in the environment. If the coherence continues to decrease, that would indicate a change in the signals meaning damage or destruction of that area between the two image scans. Using this approach over the nearly two month period of phase one, a map of likely damage in Gaza was able to be produced.

In all of the Gaza Strip, the study determined that 60.8% of all health facilities, 68.2% of all educational facilities, and 42.1% of all water infrastructure has sustained damage. Additionally, 35.1% of all health facilities, 40.2% of all educational facilities, and 36.8% of all water infrastructure is ‘functionally destroyed.’

Map of health, education, and water facilities overlaying cumulative damage, with an inset map in Gaza City, and the corresponding areas of damage for each facility type within each radial buffer across the Gaza Strip. From Asi et al.

They also looked into places deemed evacuation corridors, but found similar patterns of damage to the routes and infrastructure there as they did in the rest of Gaza, indicating that these are not actually safe places to evacuate and flee despite mandates and evacuation orders.

By analyzing the amount of infrastructure damaged and destroyed, the study’s goal was to determine the likelihood that the munitions were sent randomly rather than targeting essential civilian structures. Their final determination was that there was less than a 1% chance that the amount of clustering between the locations of the essential facilities and the munition targets was random, regardless of the degree of damage. They suggest that the clustering of damage detected to the structures is correlated, supporting claims that “nowhere and no one is safe” in the Gaza Strip due to Israel carrying out collective punishment on the Palestinian people. A United Nations committee, International Court of Justice, and UN Security Council Resolutions are three bodies that have concluded that Israel’s warfare have characteristics of genocide and weaponizing life-saving supplies.

Confirming this data is difficult due to little ground sources. The small details are nearly impossible to obtain, despite its help in understanding the accuracy and severity of conditions. However, the researchers say that their work is so far in agreement with reports that have been put up by the U.N. In addition, when they do manage to get in contact with journalists there, they agree with the levels of destruction. Scher said on a podcast interview “when we hand off these data to different journalism desks, they are doing their own sense of validation exercises with the reports or the ancillary points of information that they have.”

After determining the strong correlation between the integral structures and the damage levels from munitions, the study raises concerns over violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) by Israel. IHL offers protections to civilian infrastructure, like the ones studied here. They state that if there is even a shred of doubt that the building is “being used for specific military operations of the enemy and also if its destruction offers a defined military advantage,” they can’t attack. This study highlights the intentions of attacks on the Gaza Strip as a form of collective punishment against the population.

SAR is a vital way to assess damage and the humanitarian impacts of war. Many researchers, like those who authored this paper, have been using SAR to study and map changes in occupied Palestine for years, as well as other areas with humanitarian crises. The use of satellite imagery and remote sensing to observe and advocate for conflict-affected regions has become a huge humanitarian branch of science that will only continue to expand their efforts and bring light to human issues.

Works Cited

Al Jazeera. “Israel’s Warfare Methods in Gaza ‘Consistent with Genocide’: Un Committee.” Al Jazeera, November 14, 2024.

Aligharib. “Israel’s War on Gaza Is the Deadliest Conflict on Record for Journalists.” The Intercept, June 27, 2024.

Asi, Yara et al. “‘Nowhere and No One Is Safe’: Spatial Analysis of Damage to Critical Civilian Infrastructure in the Gaza Strip during the First Phase of the Israeli Military Campaign, 7 October to 22 November 2023 - Conflict and Health.” BioMed Central, April 2, 2024.

Batrawy, Aya. “Gazans Flee Their Homes after an Israeli Evacuation Order but Have Few Places to Go.” NPR, October 14, 2023.

Daoud, Doja. “Arrests of Palestinian Journalists since Start of Israel-Gaza War.” Committee to Protect Journalists, November 26, 2024.

“Gaza up close”. Gisha.

“Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel - Reported Impact, 18 December 2023 at 23:59 - Occupied Palestinian Territory.” ReliefWeb, December 19, 2023.

“How Satellite Radar Helps Scientists Map the Destruction in Gaza.” Marketplace, February 22, 2024.

“International Humanitarian Law.” European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

“Insar-Satellite-Based Technique Captures Overall Deformation ‘Picture.’” InSAR-Satellite-based technique captures overall deformation “picture.” U.S. Geological Survey.

“Israel Dropped over 85,000 Tons of Bombs on Gaza.” Middle East Monitor, November 7, 2024.