Israel destroying Gaza at faster rate than WWII carpet bombing of Germany: report

The depth of destruction caused by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in less than seven weeks has been compared to the years-long Allied forces campaign on German cities during World War Two.

A report in the Financial Times (FT) newspaper, based on analysis of publicly available satellite data and interviews with munitions experts, has pulled together the terrifying impact of Israel’s campaign on Gaza towns and cities.

The Israeli army’s deployment of highly sophisticated, technical, and powerful ammunition on Gaza has caused some of the worst destruction seen in modern history.

The flattening of swathes of northern Gaza is like the carpet bombing seen in the German cities of Cologne, Hamburg and Dresden, after two years of air attacks by the Allied powers of Britain, France and latterly America, in World War Two, the report said.

North Gaza took the brunt of Israel’s aerial bombardment during the first few weeks of the war, even before it was decimated by the ground invasion.

Satellite imagery and reports have shown how whole neighbourhoods and suburbs of Gaza City, which was home to 677,000 people, has been turned to rubble.

Some of the desecration includes the Islamic University of Gaza, hospitals, religious buildings, and a sewage treatment plant.

Over 60 percent of north Gaza’s buildings were razed seven weeks into the war, according to analysis of satellite radar data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamno Van Den Hoek of Oregan State University.

In comparison, from 1943 to 1945 the Allied forces bombing of German cities devastated an estimated 50 percent of their urban areas. A US military review from 1954 estimated that 7,100 tons of munitions were dropped on the city of Dresden.

US says conditional military aid to Israel an option amid Gaza onslaught.https://t.co/bFxVXq3opD.

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The report noted that the force and range of munitions employed by Israel during this conflict has been unlike previous military campaigns in Gaza.

Israel has been using a series of the US-manufactured Mk 80 aerial bombs which can range in size between two to four meters in length and weigh up to 900 kilograms/2000lbs. When dropped, a Mk 82 bomb, will devastate anyone or anything within a 31-metre radius.

Bombs weighing 2000lb have been regularly dropped on Gaza, like the "earth-shaking" GBU-31 bombs which are "four times bigger" than the 500lb bombs that were typically used by allied forces in the battle for the city of Mosul in Iraq in 2017-18.

Huge swathes of Mosul were pulverised following the fighting and much is still in ruins today as authorities have struggled to fund rebuilding operations.

In addition, these bombs have GPS antennae for precision-guided attacks and are known as 'smart' munitions for their enhanced impact.

Munitions expert John Ridge, quoted in the FT piece, estimates that Israel used at least 1,000 air-to-surface munitions in the first two weeks of the assault.

During the heaviest bombing of Mosul by the US and coalition air forces, around 600 munitions were detonated a week.

An Amnesty International investigation has found that US-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of civilians in Gazahttps://t.co/OXnrN4EdEU

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Across the whole of the Gaza Strip, over 200,000 buildings are estimated to be fully or partially destroyed.

Israel has said it is only attacking Hamas operations in the Strip in retaliation to Hamas’ surprise incursion into Israel on October 7, and has maintained that it is not targeting civilians and insisted it is warning civilians to move to 'safe zones.'

Nevertheless, the extremely large Palestinian death toll has pushed Western governments to apply pressure on Israel to avoid further civilian casualties. Over 16,000 people have been killed, and thousands more injured by Israeli forces in Gaza in the past two months.

Ongoing investigations by humanitarian organizations and rights groups are also pointing to possible Israeli war crimes. Amnesty International said this week that there was evidence that Israel used US-made JDAM bombs on strikes on Gazan homes which caused mass casualties.