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IPFS News Link • Israel - Palestine

70 Percent of Gaza Homes Destroyed, Stunning Before/After Images

• https://mishtalk.com, By Mish

The Wall Street Journal has some amazing scrolling and interactive before and after images.

Please consider The Ruined Landscape of Gaza After Nearly Three Months of Bombing

That is a gift link courtesy of the Journal. Here are a few snips.

The war in the Gaza Strip is generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.

By mid-December, Israel had dropped 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells on the strip. Nearly 70% of Gaza's 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The bombing has damaged Byzantine churches and ancient mosques, factories and apartment buildings, shopping malls and luxury hotels, theaters and schools. Much of the water, electrical, communications and healthcare infrastructure that made Gaza function is beyond repair.

Most of the strip's 36 hospitals are shut down, and only eight are accepting patients. Citrus trees, olive groves and greenhouses have been obliterated. More than two-thirds of its schools are damaged.

The destruction resembles that left by Allied bombing of German cities during World War II. "The word 'Gaza' is going to go down in history along with Dresden and other famous cities that have been bombed," said Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago and the author of a history of aerial bombing. "What you're seeing in Gaza is in the top 25% of the most intense punishment campaigns in history."

Three months ago, Gaza was a vibrant place. Despite decades of Israeli occupation, sieges and wars, many Palestinians enjoyed living there beside the Mediterranean Sea, where they gathered in cafes and seaside restaurants. Families played on the beach. Young men crowded around TVs in the evening to watch soccer.

Today, Gaza is a landscape of crumpled concrete. In northern Gaza, the focus of Israel's initial offensive, the few people who remain navigate rubble-strewn streets past bombed-out shops and apartment blocks. Broken glass crunches underfoot. Israeli drones buzz overhead.


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